


Uzumaki

by AlmostElectric



Category: Naruto
Genre: AU, Adventure, Angst, BAMF Sakura, Dark!Naruto, F/M, Female!Sasuke, Fluffy things shoved between the chasms of pain, Good!Sasuke, i guess?, no seriously
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-17
Updated: 2015-07-22
Packaged: 2018-02-17 18:19:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 60,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2318864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlmostElectric/pseuds/AlmostElectric
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Uchiha Satsuki, avenger, doesn't love anything, or anyone. Not revenge, not tomatoes, and definitely – definitely! – not Uzumaki Naruto. But when she winds up on a genin team with him, she realises there's more to his smile than teeth and sunshine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mutual

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I'm new here. If I've screwed something up, you're welcome to tell me.
> 
> I haven't listed a great deal of things that may or may not occur in this story because I quite frankly want this to read like a story, with plot twists and development. Female Sasuke is called Satsuki. Currently, there isn't much development with Kakashi, but I plan to change that (there's a reason he's listed in characters). I can guarantee no yaoi, however, as much as I like it (and oh, I do).
> 
> These are all directly taken from my upload of this on ff.net, and if you want to contact me with any questions, I check my account as AlmostElectric there fairly regularly so feel free to send an inbox my way. Thanks to my beta, who is on ff.net as Ekusukallybaa.
> 
> Oh, and one final thing. Yes, the chapters are short. I intend to keep them that way, for the most part, apart from certain exceptions.
> 
> Thanks, and I hope you enjoy.

The butterfly effect has been exemplified in a million walks of life, but in this one, it comes into play when Umino Iruka waits at home.

A war is raging outside. A nine-tailed demon fox is swinging his tails and crushing buildings and ninja alike, stomping and roaring like a furious bull.

After hours of warfare, the fox is sealed into a tiny blonde boy, and the Hokage and his wife fall dead.

All details appear to be the same.

In another walk of life, Umino Iruka was an orphan.

But today, his parents come home.

* * *

"...Uchiha Satsuki, and Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto launched up from his seat, expression contorted with indignation. "Iruka-sensei!"

Iruka looked at him exasperatedly. "Yes, Naruto. I know you and Satsuki don't get along. That's the point."

Naruto could have ripped that desk out of the wall and thrown it at Iruka's face that very second. How he _hated_ Iruka. Probably more than Satsuki.

"But Shikamaru and Chouji are together! And Inori and Koji! No one else is with someone they don't like!"

His teacher pinned him with a cold look. "Please sit down, Naruto."

He _definitely_ hated Iruka more than Satsuki.

Iruka finished reading out the project pairings, and the bell went. He left for break with a nod, leaving the children in the classroom to discuss their research projects.

"Aa! Naruto!"

Naruto's head shot up from its slumped state on the desk, shooting a wide grin at Sakura. Her angry face didn't bode well for him, likely, but he tried to keep up the guise nonetheless.

"Ah, Sakura-chan! Good mornin-"

Impressively, Sakura completely ignored Naruto. "Satsuki-san! Do you want to be partners? We can swap... since, y'know..."

The implied comment stung. Naruto huffed, turning his gaze to the front of the classroom and settling his chin on his folded arms. "Yeah, well, I didn't want to be with her either."

Satsuki shot him a cold look from his side. "Like I wanted to be paired up with you, dead last."

"Shut _up!_ "

"Idiot! Who do you think you're talking to?!"

* * *

Lunch came. Satsuki and Naruto both ate alone.

* * *

Satsuki had sat down first, and as it were, next to her was the last seat – then again, there was a seat by Takeshi. Naruto had a brief debate with himself, but then he remembered that time when Takeshi had followed him home and laughed at his apartment – now he didn't like her, but Satsuki would never do _that -_

He sat down next to her. She didn't respond.

"Naruto! What are you doing?!"

Ah, now he knew who the other seat had been for.

"Sakura-chan," he grinned, attempting to remain cheerful but-

"You're not sitting next to Satsuki-san!"

And with that, he found Sakura pushing onto his seat in a surprisingly skillful way that pushed him right out of it.

"Satsuki-san-" Sakura sang, moving her seat closer to the Uchiha.

"Stand up."

Sakura blinked. "What? But Satsuki-san-"

Satsuki didn't even turn her gaze to Sakura as she said it, chin settled on the bridge of her fingers as she stared forward, unmoving. "Stand up. Naruto got there first."

Before, she'd not been sure she'd heard, but it was certain now; Sakura was sure Satsuki had said that. She laughed nervously, eyes flitting about the room as she scratched the side of her face nervously. "B-But, uh... Satsuki-san... Naruto's, you know – why would you want to-"

The dark-haired girl finally turned to Sakura, and she wished she'd not spoken. Satsuki's dark eyes made her feel as though she was looking into a very deep and empty pit.

"You're annoying."

"Hey! Don't talk to Sakura-chan like that!" Naruto cried, launching himself up at the speed of light and pointing an accusatory finger at Satsuki. The girl looked back at him with an expression that could have froze the sun.

"Usuratonkachi."

Naruto's fury flared like an oxygen-fueled blaze.

"Don't call me that!" He grabbed Satsuki's collar, and she coldly- uncaringly (oh, how that _infuriated_ him!) grabbed his in turn, his eyes angry but hers lightly disfigured from an expression of mild irritation – Naruto imagined it to be the expression you might make at an unwanted fly. "Don't try and help me like you're better than me, you bastard!"

Satsuki gave him a cold stare, the only indication that she'd even heard him a displeased turn of the lips.

It only served to make him angrier, and Naruto hooked her collar towards him, gritting his teeth. "You act like you're so much better than _everyone!_ " His face was too close.

Satsuki's lip curled cockily. "Hn. I'm definitely better than you, dead last."

Naruto slugged her across the face, and the class fell into uproar.

* * *

Satsuki's jaw still ached when she turned up to the academy the next morning, and there was an ugly purple bruise to prove it.

Today, Sakura came in before Naruto, but sat by Takeshi instead. For a moment, she had stared tentatively at the seat, shooting Satsuki an apologetic ( _'-hah-'_ ) smile before pulling a seat up by Takeshi and twisting her fingers in her lap.

No one else even tried to sit by Satsuki today.

Until Naruto arrived late, and he sat beside Satsuki in silence. His face was swollen too, his right knuckles bruised more than his left, but his swelling was lesser. Satsuki could have sworn she had hit him harder than that.

Naruto didn't even bother to look at her today.

Not that she cared.

"In this research project, each pair will be studying a figure of significance in Konoha."

"Like Hokage-ojii-chan?" Naruto yawned, fingers tapping on the desk.

Iruka gave him a stony look. "If you want to show that kind of disrespect to our Hokage, stand outside."

"But he _is_ old-"

"-and you _are_ bottom of the class, Naruto. Pay attention." Iruka didn't even look up from his papers, but the comment was harsh. The slump of Naruto's shoulders made it seem like he was reeling from the impact. The classroom resounded from the muffled chuckles and snorts. Naruto muttered something half-heartedly bitter to himself, and then his head turned to the window.

"As I was saying..."

Naruto blatantly ignored him, finger tracing a figure of eight on the desk. It encroached onto her sector of the desk too much for her complete comfort.

For some reason, Satsuki ignored it instead of slamming her fist down on his fingers. They still didn't speak for two weeks.

* * *

"I don't want one."

She hated them. Every single one that had come and gone. They'd tried to teach her how to behave like a lady, ikebana ( _"-because flower arranging is very proper for a kunoichi, you know?"_ ), how to cook foods she'd never eat ( _'-for the inevitable future when I become a housewife, cooking for my shinobi husband-'_ ), how to dress her 'curves'-

"Satsuki, you know we've got to assign another."

"I don't want one," she stressed, her eyes glinting dangerously and her hands clenching at her sides. Her posture was straight and forced. "I can cook, and I can clean. I managed as a kid. I'll manage now."

-not that she had any; her body was slim and lithe and devoid of any unnecessary fat, her hips a barely visible gradient, and her chest as flat as it'd ever be. Curves. _Hah._

The Third sighed, his eyes peering over the steeple of his intertwined hands. "As much as a child, I respected your request to be left alone, upon your genin exam growing closer, it'd be much easier if someone was at home to help you with your training and perform the menial chores so your training can be more efficient."

Satsuki _knew_ it had something to do with her dropping grades.

"My grade dropped because I was paired with Uzumaki Naruto."

The Third's eyebrows rose. "Hm?"

"My grade dropped because of him," Satsuki reiterated, her fingernails digging into her palm. "The boy is insufferable to work with. So I refused."

"You refused?"

"Yes."

"You allowed yourself to get a score of zero because of him?"

The young Uchiha simply scowled in response, and Hiruzen sighed, closing his eyes.

"Satsuki. I can't excuse your grades because of _that._ I know Naruto well, and he's a perfectly friendly young boy. As a ninja, you'll have to go on missions-"

"Then you'll know to never put me on a team with him," Satsuki interrupted. "He is an obnoxious idiot."

"Teamwork is important, Satsuki." Sarutobi's tone left no room for a counter-argument. "Uzumaki Naruto or not. I'll be sending Yumiko over tonight."

Satsuki's mood visibly darkened, her eyebrows knotting her face into a furious glare. Her lips thinned, and she turned around, her hair cutting through the air as she did.

"Feel free. I won't be opening the door tonight."

* * *

"I don't _want_ one!"

He hated them. Passionately. There was no one except the Hokage himself that Naruto would trust in his home, cooking his food and cleaning. The last time a guardian had been assigned, Naruto had been somehow both isolated and betrayed.

She had promised to pick him up one day, and he had told all of his friends (could he call them that?) about how he was going to get picked up, too. One by one, everyone had left; Chouji picked up by his plump mother, Shikamaru piggy-backed home by his look-alike dad. In the end, Naruto had been ashamed and alone.

When she attempted to return, Naruto had barricaded the door shut, and never let another one of those nannies, carers - whatever they were - into his apartment.

"Naruto, we've got to assign one. I'm sorry."

"Nuh-uh! I do – not – _want_ – one!" For emphasis, Naruto made a large cross with his arms. "You know what the other ones were like, Ojii-chan!"

Sarutobi did.

"That said, Naruto, the state of your grades is worse than ever before. It's best that you focus your time and energy onto improving them, rather than cooking, cleaning... you know the like. As per your request, I stopped assigning them, but-"

Naruto grabbed tufts of his blonde hair and pulled, yelling. "It's all Satsuki's fault!"

Sarutobi's eyebrows raised, and he drew from his pipe. _'Great.'_ "Oh?"

"She's the reason I failed that stupid joint project! She is so- so- argh!" Naruto pulled at his hair in frustration, looking to all the world as if he was going to kick the Hokage's desk off right there. "She just drives me crazy! She acts like she's better than me all the time! I don't care if she's a girl or not, I just want to beat the crap out of her!"

The Hokage sighed, a hazy plume of thick smoke spreading out onto the ceiling. "That doesn't mean you should, Naruto."

"If you met her-"

"I spoke to her just before, Naruto. She's just as unwilling to have a temporary caregiver as you are."

Naruto often forgot that Satsuki was also an orphan. He huffed. "Yeah, well, why're you doin' it then?"

"I had a feeling you'd be unwilling," Sarutobi murmured, one hand shuffling through papers on his desk. "I was going to offer you two remedial classes-"

" _What-!_ "

"-but I've spoken to Iruka, and he says that the best course of action is that you redo the project, so this doesn't look quite so bad on your official scores."

Naruto groaned.

"Over this coming holiday, Iruka has requested you and Satsuki work together for two weeks, just like the allotted time for the original project. If you fail it, you two resit the year."

" _WHAT-!_ "

The Third Hokage smiled. "Appreciate this chance you've been given, Naruto. You'd better go tell Satsuki-"

"That fucking bastard Iruka! I'm gonna to give him _hell-!_ "

Sarutobi regarded Naruto with a stern look, but the boy's fury left him oblivious. The Hokage looked at his work for a moment, signing off a document fluidly. "You can get started today." He didn't look up.

The young boy mumbled something.

"What is it, Naruto?"

"...dress?"

Sarutobi blinked.

"What's her address?"

With a wrinkled smile, Hiruzen wrote down Satsuki's address, and sent Naruto on his way.

* * *

The sun was setting beautifully over the Hokage tower, and the haphazard shadows cast about Satsuki's windowsill like a silhouette dance.

She was so much more tired than she should have been, and Satsuki found herself spooning tea leaves into a pot. The taste was bitter and too strong, a tinge of sweetness behind the overpowering scent.

The young Uchiha lay on top of her duvet, placing the teacup onto the end table. She stared out of the window for a moment before picking up her book, opening it to the bookmark and letting the slip of paper slide out of the pages. She took a sip of the tea.

"Oi!"

Satsuki almost let her teacup clatter to the floor.

"Satsuki, you bastard, open the goddamn-"

After composing herself and knotting her face into an acceptably ferocious scowl, Satsuki yanked the door open so hard that Naruto almost fell to her feet from the force he'd been banging on it with. She gritted her teeth.

 _'Why the hell do you know where I live?'_ "What do you want?"

"Hokage-ojii-chan told me to come here."

Satsuki hated Naruto, and she hated ambiguity just as much. "Naruto-!"

To her further displeasure, the blond pushed past her into her apartment. "We gotta redo that stupid project for Iruka-sensei, otherwise we fail."

Satsuki closed her eyes, invisible steam pouring out of her every crevice. _'Failure is not an option. I have to become a ninja, soon, now – to kill him. I can't fail. Even if it means working with this idiot.'_

"Oi, what's with the-"

She heard the colossal crash of her bookcase toppling forward onto a young boy, and resisted the urge to give up on her revenge.

* * *

"Do you even know how to take care of plants?"

"Hn." Satsuki turned her nose up at the boy, nonchalantly – because she really didn't care! - but took careful note of how he was handling the plant. It was... strange.

Uzumaki Naruto was impolite and clumsy, and completely unrefined. He had no manners, and not an ounce of discipline in his body. But the moment the two had finished clearing up the bookcase, Naruto had taken the potted plant that Satsuki had bought on the spur of the moment and was... doing something that could be described as tending to it.

Satsuki didn't even know what to do upon the sight of the boy tracing the veins of the leaves, testing the soil with his fingertips, examining the undersides of the leaves; she hadn't imagined the boy had the capability to be careful within him.

"The soils not fertile any more. You got any... dunno, fruit skins? Stuff like that?"

As much as she didn't want to listen to a dead last, the plant did look sick, and she did like that plant.

Ten minutes later, and they were arguing again.

"Tomatoes? They're vegetables!"

"They're fruit, usuratonkachi."

"Agh- don't _call_ me that! Get something else!"

* * *

"So like- you know."

"No."

"Well... what are they?"

Silence. Eyebrow raise.

"I'm _asking_ , okay?!"

"I don't know what you mean."

"What are they?"

"What's what?"

"One of those... things. Everyone but me knows!"

Satsuki blinked.

"Come _on!_ Tell me the secret!"

"What are you on about, dead last?"

"What's a catra?!"

* * *

It was a while until Satsuki managed to sit Naruto down with some appropriate books, and keep his attention for long enough to explain the project.

"We're studying the Fourth Hokage."

Naruto's eyes widened in recognition, and he nodded, rocking back and forth on his crossed legs. "The yellow one, right?"

"Yes. The _yellow_ one."

"No need to be such a bastard about it-"

"Why do you call me that?"

Satsuki knew the answer before it came. 'You act like a boy' or 'You've got a chest like a boy'.

Naruto blinked. "Because you're a bastard!"

That was the first thing Satsuki liked about Naruto.


	2. Tea and Sweets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks as always to Ekusukallybaa. I should probably mention that I'm going to post up to Chapter 12 in one big chunky go right now, so yeah, it's pretty much a carbon copy apart from some slight alterations here and there.

"These books aren't enough."

"No."

"What?"

"No." Naruto was whining again, and Satsuki resisted the urge to uppercut him. "They're fine. No more books."

Satsuki gave Naruto a cold glare, gaze flicking back to her work. Naruto found himself mesmerised by the way she leafed through the pages. She looked up at him, slamming the book shut and sliding it on top of a badly-balanced book tower. "These aren't specific enough," she said.

"Why does it matter?"

Satsuki didn't respond. She was awkwardly positioned, half kneeling but mostly lying down; one arm held a textbook flat on the floor, and the other wrote fluidly in a notebook, the paper held down by an elbow.

Naruto frowned, standing up and stretching. The day had grown late.

"Ah! The view out of your window is amazing!"

And it was.

Satsuki's room looked onto the main square of Konoha and the Hokage building, and the sky above it. Evening had fallen, and the lanterns from the shop below gave the view a singed orange glow. The sun beamed over angular pipes and tanks of the Konoha rooftops, a half-complete jigsaw silhouette casting over the windowsill. Satsuki didn't say anything.

"Don't you like it?"

She didn't look up from her work. "Get some more sources."

"How?"

Satsuki didn't say anything, and Naruto turned, looking at her. She had a strange grace, and he couldn't figure out where it came from. Even amongst scattered paper and books, elbow pressed on the corner of a book with pen and paper in hand and hair half pulled up into a bun, she retained an eloquence that made every mistake seem intended. He cast his gaze away quickly.

"Do you have any cup ramen?"

She looked up, eyes flat and black. Naruto didn't feel certain she was looking at him.

"No," she said, unwinding herself from the mess of documents and folders like a coiling snake. Satsuki didn't knock a single thing out of place, even amidst the precarious mess.

"I'm going to Ichiraku then-"

"I'm making tea."

Naruto blinked. "What?"

Satsuki stood up, brushing strands of dark hair behind her ear and brushing past Naruto like a stranger. "I'm making tea," she repeated, reaching the cooker and turning on the gas.

"And?"

Satsuki stopped, settling the pan on the hob before stilling her movements. After a few seconds, she turned her head slightly, regarding Naruto on the edge of her peripheral vision.

"Stay."

* * *

The food was much nicer than Naruto had expected.

Not that he knew what he'd expected, anyway. But it was nice; it had been a rice bowl, but with eggs and meats and vegetables. He hated vegetables, and carefully picked around them; but on the off occasion he accidentally swallowed one, he didn't gag.

The air was heavy. Naruto hurriedly grabbed his chopsticks from their upright position in the bowl and left them beside it. "Uh-" he began. "...thanks."

Satsuki didn't respond, standing up and taking both bowls to the sink. Naruto watched her walk, her silhouette passing by the window for a second.

"Do you want some tea?" she said.

"Uh- I dunno, I..."

He heard the faint noise of water pouring.

"How do you like it?" she asked. Naruto felt like it was more a demand.

"I dunno. I don't really drink tea..."

She stirred the tea, the quiet noise of tapping porcelain resounding through the kitchen.

Naruto didn't really get why everyone liked Satsuki. She wasn't more popular than she was universally admired; she was pretty in an almost boyish way, with little lips and cold eyes. She had her hair out, not too long but not too short; boys and girls alike loved her. Sakura was a prime example – a girl that loved Satsuki, her refrigerator attitude, wasn't attracted to her more than she wanted to _be_ her.

He didn't know whether Satsuki was being cold now because that was her permanent state, or whether it was because he was here.

She set a rippling cup of tea down, and Naruto drank it hastily. The taste was sweet. "How did you make it?"

She didn't respond.

"'Cause... it's nice. Thanks..."

Naruto stared out the window. The sky was a soft array of colours now, the sun tucked away behind buildings and walls. He found himself counting birds, settling his chin on his folded arms.

Satsuki picked up her tea and bowls, soaping them in the sink with a sponge. She couldn't say for herself why she was being so accommodating, but she supposed that there was a lot at stake.

He was staring out the window, the blonde of his hair indistinguishable in his silhouette. She stopped running the water, drying her hands and approaching the table.

"Don't come tomorrow. I'll be out training-"

Naruto was asleep.

Satsuki blinked, leaning over to inspect his face. He was drooling.

She poked his cheek lightly. He didn't move, and she rolled her eyes.

Later on, Satsuki found herself tucking a blanket around his shoulders, and carefully sliding a pillow beneath his head.

She drew the curtains, dressing into her pyjamas quickly. She read in the light of a book lamp until early hours, but Naruto did not move.

The tea was left to get cold.

* * *

" _Shit-!_ "

Satsuki awoke to the noise of a cup smashing and a chair toppling over. Her apartment was a single room, and she looked over with blurry vision to see Naruto rushing about confusedly. She groaned quietly, climbing out of bed.

"Sorry- uh, I didn't realise I slept here the whole night, I'm sorry, I really have to go-"

"Clean that crap up before you go," Satsuki said, rubbing her head and running her fingers through her hair. She stumbled over, careful to avoid the shards of porcelain. She wiped sleep from her eyes, grabbing a flannel from the sink and wiping the floor.

"No need to be such an ass," Naruto grumbled. "I have to go now, why didn't you wake me up?"

"I tried." _'I didn't really.'_

"Did you really?"

"Yes." _'No.'_

Naruto wiped his hands, checking his pockets for his keys. "I've gotta go- gotta water my plants! Speaking of which, bastard-"

-he was running out the door now-

"-have you named yours, yet?"

"Why would I name a plant, idiot?"

The door closed.

Satsuki found herself placing the plant on the balcony, to bask in the morning sunshine.

_'Naruto. I'll call it Naruto.'_

* * *

Satsuki's training wasn't that productive, that day.

She hated using the training grounds and she'd dare not touch the Uchiha private grounds for fear of the memories – so she preferred to train in the woods.

That day, Satsuki placed the targets just as _he_ did, and flung kunai like her life depended on it. The timing was never right. She could never get that blind spot. There had been one occasion when she had, and it had felt fake; it had felt like a fluke. Sure enough, Satsuki had never hit it again.

After practicing her taijutsu against the hardest target she could find – a tree – Satsuki returned home, allowing herself the reprieve of buying fresh tomatoes on the way home. In her greed, she opened the packet on the way up the stairs to her apartment, sinking her teeth into the plump red skin. Juice leaked down her chin.

"Where have you been all day?"

Satsuki almost dropped her tomato. Naruto was sat on the step to her apartment, looking bored with a folder on his lap. His grin was impish and wide.

"I was training."

He waved the response off as though he'd never asked. "You won't believe what I got!" he grinned, shaking the folder in her face. Satsuki ignored him, turning her key in the door and stepping over him.

Satsuki was not going to ask what he got, but it took more than that to deter Naruto.

"I was rooting around the Hokage's office," he began. "And I grabbed a file on the Fourth Hokage from his library-thing! It's so thick, look, see?" Naruto made a point of showing Satsuki the width of the file. It was undeniably thick with paper.

"That's probably illegal." It _definitely_ was.

Naruto laughed. "Yeah, whatever! The old man probably knows it was me. If it was that bad, I'd already be in trouble. I've been here all day!"

Satsuki sighed.

"Whatever. Remember to put it back after."

They became quickly engrossed in work again, and Satsuki found that Naruto had a strange talent for visual work.

"So, uh- let's make a time-line! Let's do it like that! Like, Minato is born. Minato does this. Blah blah, Minato dies."

Naruto began taking the little dated notes of Minato's life, and placing them on a rough timeline. Oddly, and very, very slowly, Satsuki began to see the time-line take form. Naruto insisted on taking some of the photos in the folder, and putting them on too.

The first time Satsuki had taken out a photo, the realisation hit her, and she'd near jumped.

The Fourth Hokage was the spitting image of Uzumaki Naruto.

But the more she thought about it, the more the resemblance fell apart before her eyes; the eyes were a different shape, Naruto's cheeks fuller, Naruto's jaw rounder, his smile wider. The Fourth Hokage was also of an impressive height.

And aside from the physical aspect, Naruto was Naruto, and he was the Fourth Hokage, equipped with the status as a legendary hero and a flee-on-sight order. They couldn't be more different.

Satsuki found herself laughing at her own stupidity.

* * *

The next day, Satsuki woke up peacefully, and alone. Her plant, Naruto, looked happier, almost. She watered it, and the water pooled in the valleys of the leaves, dripping down slowly to ration the water. She decided that the plant was too clever for its name.

Naruto arrived later that day, and he came with a large piece of card. They spent the day writing on it, pinning pictures and writing events. It was detailed, and Satsuki did all of the writing at Naruto's demand. She understood why, when she saw Naruto's atrocious scrawling of his name on the back.

That night, Naruto brought cup ramen, and Satsuki made herself onigiri. She wasn't hungry.

The next three days continued similarly, until, at the end of the third day, it was complete. They asked the Third Hokage if they could give the project to Iruka the next day, and he said yes. Naruto and Sasuke were given Iruka's address, and Naruto wailed about how they would manage to get the large piece of card down the stairs.

* * *

"Let's throw it out the window."

Satsuki gave Naruto a glare.

"Come _on_. This is really long, and we're just going to bend it!"

She twitched. "I'm not throwing it out of the window."

"It's easier!"

" _No._ "

Naruto pouted, clutching the edges of the card. "But we worked so _hard!_ I don't want to bend it!"

"Don't screw up then, usuratonkachi."

He didn't, but it was a close call as they exited the stairwell, the card becoming jammed to the point where it appeared as though bending it was the only way through (but with some wiggling, it was very carefully managed). Once the hardest part was finished, they both awkwardly manoeuvred through the masses of people, trying to reach an unknown address by asking unwilling strangers about street names and districts.

Eventually, they reached Iruka's home. The grass was well groomed, the hedges trimmed and tiny flowers not-quite-wild peering through the metal fences like shy children.

They knocked, and Iruka smiled slightly at seeing their massive board (less so at seeing Naruto). After explanation, he agreed to view the presentation in his front garden.

With a sharp look from Satsuki, Naruto began.

"Namikaze Minato was born in a fishing village at the edge of the Land of Fire; the village of Kufuchi. His father was a fisherman, but since the fishing industry was being taken over by governmental ships, he sent Minato, with plenty of money, to live with a relative in Konoha, and to send money home once he started doing missions.

"At the age of ten, Minato graduated the academy and became a genin. He was said to be a genius, the kind that comes only once a generation."

Satsuki began then, unfolding a photo on the board that depicted Minato on a team, with a white haired man standing over them laughing.

p>"Minato was assigned into a genin team, taught by their sensei Jiraiya, one of the legendary Sannin. After the unfortunate deaths of his teammates, Jiraiya took Minato under his personal wing. He quickly became jounin, and was assigned a genin team himself.

"During the Third Shinobi World War, Minato lost two of his genin; one of whom was killed at the Kannabi bridge, in Kusagakure. Later on in the mission which brought them there, he killed over one thousand shinobi using his trademark jutsu, the technique that had earned him the title 'Konoha's Yellow Flash'. The jutsu entails quick movement via classified high-level fuuinjutsu. Minato's amazing speed and skill with it meant that many praised him as the fastest man alive. He was a genius."

Naruto quickly unfolded a weathered picture of a three-pronged kunai on the board, and continued.

"At the age of 28, Minato was nominated as Hokage, but his reign was short. The Kyuubi attacked the village, causing uproar. Minato protected the village with his life, sealing the Kyuubi away into the Shinigami using the Shiki Fujin, and he was condemned to have to fight the demon for eternity in the stomach of the Shinigami. For his sacrifice, he is regarded as one of the greatest heroes the village has ever produced.

"At the time of his death, Minato was five foot ten, and was well-known for his laid-back nature. He enjoyed reading, and was said to have dreamt of being Hokage since he was in the academy."

Satsuki unveiled a picture of a young Minato; very young indeed, grinning widely amongst his classmates, under a tree. The picture was badly taken.

Iruka applauded, smiling widely and commending them both on the excellent job. Naruto beamed, but Satsuki expressed little more than indifference (yet, he could see a tiny smirk playing on her lips).

"You've both attained the highest mark for this. The presentation was excellent, the info was accurate and it was read clearly, concisely, and chronologically. You'll be able to progress to next year. Well done, you two. I wasn't sure if you'd get along."

"Me neither," Naruto said.

They left, Iruka kindly offering to put the piece of card away somewhere. Just as Satsuki prepared to turn the corner, Naruto grabbed her arm.

"Hey! Where're ya goin'?"

"Home," she said.

"No, let's go buy some stuff! Let's celebrate, since we got an amazing grade!"

Satsuki blinked, but submitted, allowing herself to be dragged along. They reached a dingy convenience store, the woman at the counter looking bored. The sign read the hours for a Friday as seven until six. She noted the time; it was close to six.

The bell above the door rang as they walked in, Naruto lazily hooking his hands around the back of his head as he walked. "Let's get sweets."

She didn't say anything.

"Okay, okay. So we need... chocolate. Obviously. What type?"

Silence.

"Yeah, all of them. I know. I was just checking."

The one-sided conversation continued for five or so minutes, and Naruto ended up with a bag bulging with chocolate and sweets. He was bouncing on the balls of his feet as they queued, two old ladies in front of them dropping their money at every possible opportunity.

After what seemed like an eternity, they reached the till- but just as they set the stuff down, the woman left the key in the till and went into the back of the shop wordlessly. For a moment, Satsuki waited.

"Excuse me?" she said, after a few moments more. The cashier came back out, now donned in a coat with her bag. She gave Satsuki a smile that made her feel ill.

"We were just closing up now, honey." Her expression was masking a badly-disguised disgust, or something alike to it.

Satsuki checked the time again. Ten to six.

"But you're not closed yet."

Naruto tugged on her arm. "It's fine, okay. Let's just go home."

"I'm afraid we are, sweetheart."

Satsuki found her tone escalating. "No, it's not. It's ten to six."

"We're finished for the day," the cashier reiterated, smile wrinkled and entirely dishonest.

"No, you finish at six. It's ten to."

The cashier shrugged, adjusting her bag. "We leave ten minutes early sometimes," she said, her face twisting into a jargon version of apologetic.

No matter what she said, Satsuki knew well when an act had been done out of spite and little more. Naruto's insisting grip on her arm persisted.

With a final scowl, Satsuki hooked the bag off the desk and headed for the door.

"Oi, you can't just take that-!"

"Oh really?" Satsuki sneered. "But I've paid for it."

The cashier frowned. "No you haven't-"

With a sweeping, strong movement, Satsuki lashed several coins and a note onto the floor. The woman looked at her, mouth agape, and the Uchiha simply shrugged in response.

"Yes, I have."

With that, Satsuki turned out of the shop, a slack-jawed Naruto in tow.

* * *

"You know, it wasn't _that_ important-"

"Shut up."

For once, Naruto listened, and they walked in silence, the rustling of the plastic bag the only noise passing between them. Satsuki shifted the bag's weight to her elbow.

"She was being rude," she said.

"You didn't need to cause a scene," Naruto bit back. "We could have just gone somewhere else."

Satsuki didn't respond.

The walk home was silent, and though it hadn't been discussed, her feet led her to her own apartment, and she walked in, looking briefly at the plant and then placing the bag on the table beside the couch.

"Well, since we argued so much for some stupid sweets, they'd better taste nice..."

She sat beside him for a while, and after halting the all-consuming stream of food to his mouth, he gave her a strange look.

"Aren't you going to have some?"

Satsuki looked away for a moment.

"Huh? Why not?"

"I don't like sweets."

Naruto blinked. "How can you _not_ like sweets?! And why'd you yell at that lady if you didn't even _want_ any?!" _  
_

Satsuki snorted. She didn't answer.


	3. Kiss

Naruto spent the rest of his holiday living a loose schedule that varied between eating, sleeping, and training. On the Thursday, he had briefly considered contacting Satsuki for something else to do, but reminded himself that now she wasn't obliged to spend time with him, she would just kick him out of her apartment.

Or, she wouldn't be in. Though, for all training she did, he never saw her in the Training Grounds.

The Genin exam arrived too quickly, and the night before, as though he was sensing his fear, Mizuki invited Naruto out for ramen. The gesture was a welcome one.

The beef was wonderful and succulent, the noodles salty and perfect. Naruto couldn't fully appreciate the taste.

"How are you, Naruto?"

Slurping up one last noodle, Naruto grinned. "Great, Mizuki-sensei! The food's amazing! Thanks!"

He knew that wasn't really what Mizuki had meant. Naruto did his best to avoid letting on.

Mizuki smiled, eating a smaller bowl of noodles himself – slower. Their slurping was in unison, and Naruto ordered another bowl. Mizuki smiled into his food at Naruto's unprecedented eating speed, but said nothing.

"Are you prepared for your exam, Naruto?"

 _'As prepared as I can be...'_ "Yeah! Stop worrying, Mizuki-sensei. Are you prepared?"

His teacher laughed, the smile natural on his face. They ate for a while in silence, but the air was not thick.

"Naruto, if you're worried about your exam..."

Naruto sighed, pushing away his last bowl and cradling his stomach. "I... I dunno, Mizuki-sensei. I try, and I try, but I can't get the Bunshin down... I've tried for so long."

"I could teach you?" Mizuki offered, but Naruto shook his head.

"We only have one night... it's fine. I'm just gonna hope that the Bunshin technique doesn't come up!"

Naruto was laughing, but the sound screamed of emptiness. Mizuki gave him a sad look.

"Stupid. Don't leave it so last minute, next time."

_'Didn't you want to ask me?'_

" _You're_ stupid, Mizuki-sensei!" Naruto huffed, staring into his food and folding his arms.

"Naruto... if you're struggling with chakra control, then tonight, I'll try and help you-"

"Really?! You're the _best_ , Mizuki-sensei!"

"-only for a while, okay? Not too late! Oi!"

* * *

"Make me a bunshin."

Naruto hated bunshins, and his face fell. Mizuki laughed heartily, ruffling his hair and smiling.

"There's no need to look so miserable, Naruto."

"But there is," he whined. "I can't do this. I hate bunshins and I can't do them. It's not possible!"

"Why?" Mizuki asked.

Naruto pouted, pulling hands rigidly to his sides with a frustrated expression. "I don't know! But I can't! That's all there is to it!"

For the best part of an hour, Mizuki prodded about Naruto's hand, demanding he summon chakra and then stop; and then he came to a conclusion.

"You've got a humongous amount of chakra, Naruto. Huge."

Naruto blinked.

"Really? That's good, right?"

Mizuki smiled. "Yes, it is," he said. "But it means that using a tiny bit for something like the Bunshin no Jutsu is harder. Here, Naruto. I'll teach you something."

"Ooh! Ooh! Is it- is it cool? Like, a super cool jutsu?"

"Have you ever climbed a tree, Naruto?"

Hours later, Naruto had ascended to the first branch; his extremities ached- _everywhere_ ached, his head span.. He'd done it – climbed a tree without his hands! Using chakra alone. His cheeks hurt from his smile. His smile that Mizuk was proud of him. Naruto had never felt so invigorated as when he had looked back at Mizuki to see his hopeful smile – no, proud! Encouraging and kind; Naruto had never felt so happy.

Naruto had never known the sensation of falling so well as then; after a few steps, he'd either repel himself from the bark, or slip down it. Most of the time, he was repelled; he'd never felt something so strange as being launched through the air every time he attempted to scale the tree.

The accomplishment warmed his heart, but not so much as Mizuki's pride. The way he ruffled his hair, pulling him to his chest and laughing heartily.

His Bunshin only looked a little less dead, but he tried to ignore that.

* * *

Naruto prayed with all his might that it would be anything but the Bunshin no Jutsu. He had resigned himself to the fact that it was physically impossible to produce one that wasn't pale or lifeless, but he had significantly improved them after honing his chakra control the night before.

He had all but mastered the henge and kawarimi; but Naruto stood by his word. The bunshin wasn't possible. Naruto tried, and failed every time. At first, he'd asked help from other students, who had tried to help. But Naruto had known that their problems with the technique hadn't been the same, as Mizuki had proven. Naruto had too much chakra. It was near impossible for him to siphon off a tiny amount for the Bunshin no Jutsu.

He entered the academy with a heart of lead.

"Today, the genin test will be on the bunshin."

Naruto pushed down vomit.

After everyone settled down, Iruka called students in one by one. Naruto stole a glance at Satsuki; her expression was bored. He imitated it. He was _not_ nervous.

"Uzumaki Naruto, into the testing room."

He was nervous as _hell._

Naruto walked in, quietly, past his classmates – their gazes burned his back, their laughing sniggers and whispers burned his ears – and into the practice room.

He barely heard Iruka's request for three clones. Mizuki, at his side, smiled at him.

Naruto undoubtedly and entirely preferred Mizuki.

He tried; very honestly, he did. Naruto summoned as little chakra as he could, trying to form a bunshin, but it was like a pale, washed out balloon, collapsing the floor slowly but surely. The failure stung.

"I'm very sorry, Naruto, but..."

Naruto didn't care. He bit his lip, pushing back tears.

"Iruka... don't you think we should let him pass?"

Naruto blinked, bringing his gaze up from the floor. Mizuki had a gentle expression on his face.

"He did create one bunshin, to be fair," Mizuki said, half-smiling.

Naruto's heart became lighter, just for a moment.

Iruka sighed deeply. "Mizuki, you know I can't pass him for that. It's not even a decent bunshin. I'm sorry, Naruto, but you fail."

On his way out, Naruto tried to forget the sharp but welcoming gleam of the headbands on the table.

* * *

Satsuki saw Naruto leave the classroom, looking defeated and tearful.

She wanted to go up and yell at him. Yell at him for not trying hard enough, yell at him for not becoming a ninja.

But she didn't understand why she wanted to. So Satsuki didn't say anything at all.

* * *

Naruto had found himself, legs swinging, looking onto the village with Mizuki at his side.

"You know, Iruka didn't pass you because he wants you to be strong," Mizuki said.

The boy winced, biting the inside of his cheek.

"I mean it, Naruto." Mizuki leant back, wind brushing white strands of hair out of his face. "Being a ninja's hard, you know? Iruka doesn't want you to go into the ninja world unprepared. Neither do I."

Naruto cast his gaze downwards. "I know, but I really wanted to graduate this time."

"Well, I guess I have no choice but to tell you..."

* * *

An Oiroke no Jutsu later, Naruto was in the middle of the forest, a huge scroll laying in front of him.

"Naruto!"

He whipped his head around, and then smiled. "Mizuki-sensei!"

Mizuki strolled towards him, expression soft. He knelt down slightly, ruffling Naruto's hair. "How are you doing?"

"Great, Mizuki-sensei! I can finally do the Bunshin technique!" Naruto said, grinning widely. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Mizuki blinked, rubbing his eyes to see if he had double-vision as he looked around. The area was truly filled to the brim with orange, and he smiled.

"Naruto," he said. "That's... that's amazing! That jutsu..."

_'That jutsu is an S-Rank...! Most jounin can only create three at most... but this kid... there's thousands!'_

Naruto grinned, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Thanks, Mizuki-sensei!"

Mizuki smiled back, before his expression turned serious. "Naruto," he said. "I have to tell you the truth."

"What is it?"

Mizuki brushed his hair behind his ear. "I'm leaving this village tonight."

Naruto blinked. "Wha- why?"

"The truth is, Naruto... long ago, the Fourth Hokage sealed the Kyuubi away. But it was too powerful to destroy. Instead... he sealed it inside of you."

The young boy blinked, and then his jaw went slack, eyes widening. "M-Me? Inside of me? The... the Kyuubi?!"

"Yes." Mizuki stopped for a moment. "I'm... I'm sorry for all those years. Those years of people hating you for something you're not. Some people blame you for what the Kyuubi did."

"B-But! B-But I'd _never-_ "

"I know."

Naruto's expression was tearful, and Mizuki shook his head, ruffling Naruto's hair once again.

"To tell the truth," Mizuki began, "I once hated you, too. I couldn't see past what was inside of you. But one day... I came to see it. You were just a child... everyone mistreated you. You never understood why... you had no love, no care. You were so _alone._

"This village only wants you for the power within you. But they mistreat you... and tonight, I am escaping. And I want you to come with me."

"W... Where to?"

"Orochimaru-sama. He is a scientist, who long escaped Konoha himself. A genius. And I believe that within his village, you would be treated as not only a human being, but maybe a prince! Within Orochimaru-sama's territory, power is everything. That jutsu you just performed... it's the sign of a truly powerful shinobi, Naruto."

Mizuki's expression made Naruto feel warm like he never had.

_'Does he really believe in me?'_

"Come with me... this village is just holding you back! I would have escaped alone... but I don't want you to stay here, Naruto. All these years of abuse and terror... don't you want to escape?"

Naruto's heart pounded like a drum in his ears.

"Mizuki-sensei, I-"

In the years to come, Naruto would never forget the noise of lightning meeting flesh.

With a fast and brutal cut of light, Mizuki's chest was pierced by a gloved hand, shredded alveoli spattering Naruto's face as Mizuki took a wheezing gasp through his mangled lung.

His heart spluttered, his lungs coughed, and with a final, wet rasp, Mizuki's legs trembled and he slid off the man's arm like a sword from a sheath.

Even when the chunks of gore had been removed, Naruto could not clean himself of that day. He could not clean his eyes of the ANBU mask, he could not clean his lips of the shredded cells, nor his nose and tongue of the stench of death.

And he could never clean his heart of Mizuki, the man who'd cared, and never, ever, of his bloody corpse.


	4. Burn

"Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Satsuki."

* * *

Sakura was fairly sure Satsuki would at least be a little more willing to be around her after they had been assigned onto a team together.

The girl was walking, hands in pockets-

"S-Satsuki-san? Uh, good morning! Or, is it afternoon? I'm not too su..."

Satsuki paused in her walk. "What?"

"U-Um... pardon?"

Satsuki turned her head, looking at Sakura with a blank expression. "What is it?" she asked.

"Well," Sakura said, holding a bag to her side rigidly. "I was thinking... we could have lunch? Y'know, since we're gonna be on a team and all!" She scratched the side of her face.

Satsuki faced forward again, and then she turned her whole body to face Sakura. She closed her eyes, as though in exasperation.

Sakura had very honestly expected her to at least say something.

With nothing more than a brush of arms, Satsuki walked straight past Sakura and back the way she'd came.

* * *

"Sakura-chan! Do you want to sit together for lunch-"

"No! Get out of my way, idiot!"

And Sakura walked straight past Naruto and back the way she'd came.

Naruto saw the brief but certain glint of tears in her eyes.

* * *

"Yo."

Satsuki didn't say anything, not even when Naruto slumped down next to her. She reached for a riceball.

"Why did you make Sakura-chan cry?" Naruto said. The words felt weak and empty to her; like Naruto didn't really care at all.

Satsuki didn't look at him. "I didn't say anything to her."

Naruto believed her – she was telling the truth - and she ate beside him in silence. His stomach rumbled, and he turned to her, laughing sheepishly and rubbing the back of his head-

She offered a riceball with an outheld hand. "Here."

Naruto took it delightedly, smiling and thanking her, and took a bite-

"Eurgh! The hell's _that?!_ "

"Not ramen."

"It's disgusting!"

"I didn't prepare it for _you._ "

"You _like_ that?!"

Later, Naruto returned home, and Satsuki went shopping.

* * *

"Good afternoon, Mizuki-sensei..."

He made himself as comfortable as he could amongst a field of buried dead, but Naruto had always been scared of ghosts. His hand brushed against the cold marble of a grave, and he pulled it back quick.

Naruto bit his lip.

"I... climbed over the gate to get here. Apparently the graveyard closes at four. But, no-one'll care! I've done worse, right, Mizuki-sensei?"

Naruto wanted to talk to him.

_'You shouldn't have! How did the assignments go?'_

"I... like my new team, I think. Sakura-chan's on a team with me! It's like a dream come true!"

_'Being a ninja isn't a joke! You can't be messing around with the girl you like. At least it's not someone you don't like, though, right?'_

Naruto rolled his eyes and groaned, remembering Satsuki. "But I do have Satsuki on my team. She's... alright, though. Recently."

_'That's good. I'm sure things could have gone worse, right? You guys used to argue like cat and dog, but you could've gotten put with Takashi!'_

"She... Satsuki's really... I don't know, sensei. She can be mean, but she even offered me some of her lunch today. I forgot mine."

_'Are you hungry?'_

In his mind's eye, Mizuki smiled.

"So... everything's fine, I guess..."

_'Let's go out for ramen. My treat!'_

With that, Naruto let hot tears spill out.

_'I want to see you again... Mizuki-sensei...!'_

* * *

The next day, Naruto arrived quietly, but amongst the chatter of students, it wasn't particularly noticeable.

One by one, jounin came by to pick up their new genin teams; after an hour, Iruka checked the roster ("-your jounin sensei is... oh.") and made an excuse to leave soon after. Two hours later, they were still waiting. Naruto had taken to napping on the desk, and Satsuki could tell at a glance that Sakura was agitated.

Soon, the sliding door pulled open, and a man with grey hair and one quarter of visible face peaked through.

"Yo."

"Yo?" Sakura seethed, hands on her hips. "You're three hours late!"

"Oh. I simply got lost on the road of life..."

Satsuki raised an eyebrow.

Sakura gritted her teeth.

Naruto had a spontaneous sleeping spasm. He kicked the desk, before falling back into a comfortable position atop the desk.

The man brought his hand to his chin. "My first impression of you all..."

"...well, you're all very aggressive. Except the sleeping one. Meet me on the roof in five minutes."

* * *

He was late again.

Still stretching, Naruto blinked when Kakashi finally arrived. "Late again? How did you get lost on your way to the roof?"

Kakashi smiled. "A black cat crossed my path, so I had to take the long way around."

Naruto nodded absent-mindedly, and Sakura found that proof enough that the boy was in a daze. She wondered what the long way around could even be.

Their sensei coughed, and smiled. "So, introduce yourselves! Your likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams... that kind of thing." His expression was uncomfortably cheerful.

"What about you?" Satsuki said bluntly.

"Hm?"

"We don't know anything about you," she said again.

Kakashi nodded in understanding, his smile sympathetic beneath the cotton of his mask. "Yes, yes, of course. Well, I'm Hatake Kakashi. I have many likes and dislikes... I don't have a dream. I have a few hobbies..."

Naruto folded his arms. "We only found out your name!"

Kakashi smiled. "You can go first," he said.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" he said, grinning widely. "I like ramen! I don't like the three minutes it takes for the ramen to cook! My hobbies... I like... gardening, I guess... and my dream, is..."

Mizuki's voice rang in his head.

_'-this village is just holding you back! I would have escaped alone... but I don't want you to stay here, Naruto. All these years of abuse and terror... don't you want to escape?'_

Naruto cast his gaze to the ground, eyes unseeing.

_'Do I really... want to be Hokage...?'_

Satsuki's eyes widened, and her breath caught in her throat. She schooled her expression back into one of nonchalance.

"To be Hokage."

Naruto looked up, blinking in surprise.

Satsuki said it again. "To be Hokage." She flicked her gaze towards him. "That's what you're always going on about, isn't it? Being Hokage."

Naruto took a deep breath, laughing awkwardly. "Yeah," he said, his cheerful demeanour reasserting itself. "I suppose. I want to be the best Hokage there ever was! Better than any that came before!"

But even then, the lapse in personality had put Satsuki on edge, and the steeple of her hands tightened.

"I see," Kakashi said. "And you next." His finger motioned towards Sakura, and she blushed, smiling.

"I'm Haruno Sakura! I like dango... and I don't like Naruto! My hobbies are... reading, and my dream is..."

 _'To be Satsuki's friend?'_ she thought. _'That sounds pathetic...'_

She coughed, and smiled confidently. "My dream is to be a kunoichi worthy of Satsuki-san's acknowledgement!"

Sakura internally fist pumped. _'SHANNARO! Did that sound cool, or what?!'_

Satsuki, however, did not even blink at the declaration.

"Do we only like food, here?" Kakashi pondered, before nodding at Satsuki. "And now you."

Satsuki closed her eyes, and Naruto could only take the fierce coldness of her face as a sign of rage.

"I'm Uchiha Satsuki. I have plenty of dislikes. I don't particularly like anything-"

"Tomatoes," Naruto said.

Kakashi looked at Naruto with a blank look, and the boy rubbed the back of his head with an awkward grin.

"I mean! You like tomatoes, right? You don't really eat anything else!"

Satsuki bristled at the comment, and continued unhindered.

"I don't have any hobbies. I don't have a dream- it's an ambition."

Kakashi felt his heart go cold. _'Just as expected...'_

"To kill a certain man, and restore my clan."

Naruto and Sakura in turn both looked at Satsuki with a horrified awe.

 _'To kill...?!'_ Sakura thought. _'That's... that's so much more mature than what I said, but...'_

_'To kill someone!? Jeez! I was right! Satsuki is totally off her cake!'_

Kakashi nodded. "I see." And then he turned back to the group, smiling. "You're... a diverse group. You're the first two-thirds female cell I've seen in a long time, you know! But... will you be prepared for the test?"

His expression was mock-contemplative, and Satsuki felt anger welling in her chest.

Naruto's heart sank to the pit of his stomach, but he tried to hold up his smile. "Wh...What test?"

His teacher smiled. "The one that sends back two-thirds of the passing students! Did you not hear?"

"Wh-What?! No way!" Sakura declared, stumbling over her words in her horror. _'No! There can't be..! I can't fail now!'_

"I'm sure there is. You guys mustn't be in the information loop, you know? But! I'll give you some exclusive information!"

Naruto and Sakura leaned forward, completely at attention. Satsuki didn't even look at the man, but her posture was as alert as ever.

Kakashi leaned forward, speaking in a happy whisper.

"No one's ever passed my test! Training Grounds, at five tomorrow!"

"In the _morning?!_ "

"When else?" Kakashi's smile was making Naruto fear for his life.

"And don't eat breakfast! Or... you'll throw up!"

* * *

Satsuki and Naruto walked home together, their homes on roughly the same route. Naruto didn't know if Sakura's was, too, but her presence was welcome to him anyway.

"Oh! Just a minute, okay? I need to go buy some incense!"

Sakura blinked. _'Has someone died...? Maybe that was why he wasn't so annoying today...'_

Naruto held a finger up for them to wait, and hurried into a shop. Satsuki leaned against a wall, looking blankly ahead, and Sakura leaned identically next to her.

After a moment's silence, Sakura couldn't take it. "How do you put up with him?"

"Hm?" Satsuki turned her head to Sakura.

"Naruto," Sakura said. "I can't _stand_ him! How do you put up with him? He's so annoying!"

She felt almost guilty for the outburst, and she hurried to correct herself, laughing awkwardly. "Well, I mean... we're gonna have to be on a team for a long time, so..."

Satsuki looked as though she hadn't heard Sakura, staring straight forward. Just as Sakura was about to pretend she hadn't said anything at all, the Uchiha responded.

"Yeah. He _is_ annoying."

Sakura blinked at the unexpected response, then waited for her to continue.

She didn't.

 _'Well..._ that _didn't answer anything.'_

"-oi! Let's go home now, sorry to keep you guys waiting!"

Naruto bounded towards them, grinning widely with a packet of incense in hand.

They walked for a short while, crossing the main market with little conversation at all. Naruto was speaking, but it was more like background noise to Sakura than anything at all.

His stomach rumbled loudly, and Satsuki rolled her eyes.

Naruto groaned, rubbing his belly. "Yeah... sorry. I don't think I can afford anything right now anyway..."-he felt for his wallet forlornly-"so let's just go home."

They walked for a moment, before Sakura heard the rustle of clothing and saw something green pass from Satsuki's hand to Naruto. It almost hit him in the head, and the catch was clumsy.

"Oi! That almost _hit_ me, you assho-"

"Just eat it."

"Eh?"

Naruto took a look at the green ball in his hand; it was an apple, spherical and juicy looking. He'd always been of the opinion that apples were one of the more tolerable fruits. He looked at Satsuki, and smiled widely.

"Thanks!"

Sakura frowned. _'If he annoys her too, why is she so... strangely nice to him...?'_

Naruto smiled harder when he remembered that Satsuki didn't eat apples.

As they reached a corner, the three of them split off into separate roads.

"Satsuki-san... see you tomorrow, right? Good luck!" Sakura smiled, waving enthusiastically.

Satsuki nodded, giving Naruto a nod in turn as she turned down her street and steadily walked away.

"Bye, Sakura-chan! I hope we pass this test tomorrow!"

Naruto hadn't expected anything like what he got.

"Yeah," Sakura smiled, bowing politely. "Good luck, Naruto. We'll have fun being on a team together if we pass this test, so... let's try our best!"

His heart skipped a beat, and he blushed. "Hah... yeah! See you, Sakura-chan!"

And with that, Naruto left for the graveyard with a smile so wide it hurt his cheeks.

* * *

"Mizuki-sensei..."

_'How did everything go?'_

"We're... gonna have to do a test to actually become genin. It sounds hard, and I'm not sure I can do it, but..."

Naruto took a deep breath. "I'm not sure about Sakura-chan yet, but... Satsuki..."

_'See? I told you!'_

"Satsuki's..." Naruto paused, smiling. "Satsuki's... not as bad as I thought she was. Maybe... maybe we can even be friends."

He lit the incense, the thin smoke pirouetting upwards. The smell permeated through the natural smell of the graveyard like poison in a glass of sake.

Naruto imagined the rotting corpse below him, how stupid it was that he imagined the man speaking to him now. But it was therapeutic, made him feel better... that was what Mizuki would have wanted, surely.

(Naruto tried to convince himself.)

"I'm not gonna come here so much after today. I'll come... talk to you for a bit sometimes, but... you can probably see what I'm doing anyways, you know? I'm probably wasting my time. So... wish me luck, Mizuki-sensei!"

Before he left, Naruto buried the bitten down apple core in the ground above Mizuki's grave.

"A... sign of my first friendship... and an offering to you, I guess."

He took a deep breath, leaving the graveyard with his eyes facing straight forward. Naruto dared not look at the countless headstones of people he would never meet.

The gates were open as he left, this time.

"See ya, Mizuki-sensei."

A tuft of paper white daffodils waved him goodbye.


	5. Connect

The morning was cold, and Satsuki felt on the verge of vomiting.

They all arrived at the Training Grounds simultaneously, sans Kakashi.

"Good morning, Satsuki-san," Sakura said, bags under her eyes. Her smile resembled the forced grin of a corpse, but Satsuki nodded at her anyway.

"Ugh..." Naruto said, groaning and sitting down against his bag. "If Kakashi is late again today...!"

Satsuki hoped he wouldn't be.

He was.

Three hours later, Kakashi arrived with an entirely disinterested expression. He waved cheerfully. "Yo."

Satsuki supposed she'd be cheerful if she'd had three hours more sleep, too.

"You're late!" Naruto and Sakura shouted in unison, identical expressions of rage on their faces.

Kakashi shrugged, smiling and putting his hands up as though to admit defeat. "I had to run around the village fifteen times to defeat a green beast."

" _Liar!_ "

* * *

Kakashi dangled two bells in front of them, and they jingled.

"These," he said, "are your ticket to being a shinobi."

He tied them to his belt. "Take them from me, and you get to become a ninja. Don't? And you get sent back to the academy. And you get to be tied to a log while I eat food." Kakashi smiled. "I hope you ate breakfast."

Naruto stomped his feet, furious. "But you told us not to eat any!"

Satsuki felt awfully stupid for having listened. Her hand wandered subconsciously to her stomach.

"Well, maybe you three cute genin ought to think for yourselves," Kakashi said. He reached for the timer, winding a knob at the back and pressing down on the top. "You have until noon. Fight me like you intend to kill me, or you'll do no damage at all, I assure you."

"But, sensei..." Sakura said, looking nervous. "What if we hurt you?"

Kakashi just laughed at her, and Satsuki saw Naruto tense and run forward like a hare.

"As if I'm gonna lose out on being a ninja now!"

And with a roar, Naruto lunged forward, kunai clutched in one hand-

And with a blink, Kakashi had that very same kunai pointed at the back of Naruto's very own neck. He smiled.

"I haven't even said go yet."

Satsuki felt herself go cold.

"But you two would do well to take from Naruto's example... come at me with the intent to kill. Now..."

Kakashi released Naruto's hand from his grip, and walked into the centre of the clearing.

"Go."

Within a millisecond, Sakura and Satsuki had hidden within the trees, but Kakashi looked entirely unconcerned. Naruto was bemused.

"Aren't you... I dunno, gonna chase after them?"

The man shrugged, and reached into his pouch. Naruto steadied himself, eyeing his bag carefully as he rooted through it.

_'Kunai... shuriken... or something else... I don't know what to expect from this guy...!'_

With a sleek motion, Kakashi pulled out a small orange book.

Naruto blinked.

"Wait. _What?_ You're _reading!?_ "

Kakashi didn't look up.

"Why are you _reading!?_ "

He still didn't look up, but turned a page. "To find out what happens, of course."

Naruto clenched his fists.

 _'Is this guy... taking me that lightly?'_ he thought, but he grinned, and formed a handsign. From the branches, Satsuki frowned.

_'What is Naruto doing?'_

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

The clearing became filled with Narutos, and Satsuki blinked. ' _I suppose... if they're just illusions...'_

"Kage Bunshin," Kakashi mused, and his tone sounded a tad surprised. "And so many. How reckless... but I'm impressed. Solid clones."

With a simultaneous war-cry, the Narutos drove forward, and at that moment Satsuki finally understood there was no way she could win against this man.

Naruto was not as graceful or strategic as Satsuki, though he was more powerful; but strategy and grace weren't necessary when there were fifty of you.

Kakashi, with one arm occupied and his eyes glued firmly to the book, span and kicked and blocked and wiped out each and every ninja that Naruto had to offer, and with a final punch to the gut he sent the original Naruto flying.

 _'This guy, even without looking, can do that...?! We've... we've got no chance...!'_ Sakura thought, eyes wide.

After a moment of looking at Naruto, leaning against the tree to her right, Satsuki closed her eyes. This plan was the stupidest she'd had yet. ' _He must be having an influence on me...'_ she thought tiredly.

"Naruto," she whispered. His head jerked up to see her in the branches.

"What?" he said loudly, and Satsuki resisted the urge to put her head in her hands.

 _'Idiot...'_ she cringed, but flicked her head in order to motion Naruto up into the trees. Thankfully, the boy seemed to get it, but Satsuki didn't stick around to find out.

_'Kakashi probably knows where I am now... I've gotta move fast.'_

She stopped on a distant branch, and turned to Naruto.

"There's no way we're going to beat him," she said in a low voice. "We've got to team up."

"Are you kidding? There's only two bells! If we team up, it won't be fair on Sakura-chan!"

Now, _that_ was true. Satsuki bit her lip, but her expression was unmoved. "This whole thing isn't fair. He's a jounin, and we'll only win together."

"You can't just leave her out." Naruto pouted and folded his arms.

"Then she can team up with us too."

"There are only _two_ bells, bastard!" Naruto emphasised this point by holding up two fingers.

"Then we'll pick at the end who gets them," Satsuki said, gritting her teeth.

Naruto looked torn. "We'll just end up arguing! It won't be fair. Someone who tried hard might not get one..."

"It's better than _no-one_ getting a bell!"

"I can hear you two, you know."

Naruto fell out of the tree, and Satsuki bent over backwards to avoid the swipe of Kakashi's arm. She propelled herself off a branch with a push of her arms, and landed in the clearing beside Naruto.

"You find Sakura, and I'll try to hold him off for a while."

Satsuki left no room for argument, and she was grateful when Naruto gave her a nod before jumping into the trees. _'Thank God, he can at least listen to instructions...'_

" _Sakura-chaaaaan!_ Where are you hiding?"

Satsuki almost choked on her own saliva.

Kakashi approached Satsuki with a nonchalant expression.

"You know teaming up is against the rules," he said after a long pause.

"You never said so."

Kakashi shrugged. "I suppose you're right." He snapped his book shut, and tucked it into his pouch. "But I'm eager to see the Uchiha's famous Gliding Edge taijutsu style. Don't let me down."

_'How did he...?!'_

As eager as she was to fight someone worthy fighting, Satsuki was beginning to have her doubts. If he already knew of her Gliding Edge style...

"I've seen it myself," Kakashi said. "But to fight it must be quite a different experience. And as the last female Uchiha, you must be the last person in the world who knows it."

 _'Last female Uchiha,'_ she thought. _'Last Uchiha altogether... except for Itachi.'_

Satsuki didn't say anything, expression darkening as she settled into the first stance of the Gliding Edge with a scowl. Kakashi didn't even come towards her.

She kept her eyes firmly on him. _'This isn't designed for offence, but... if he won't come to me...'_

With a graceful spin of her body, she launched a barrage of shuriken at Kakashi. The man jumped easily over them, and Satsuki quickly launched another, jumping backwards and bouncing off of her hands onto a branch. She glared, and threw herself through the air with her arms at her sides.

Kakashi's eyes widened at the direct attack, but he caught her by her shoulders.

 _'Hah.'_ Satsuki smirked.

She hooked her leg around the back of his neck, and clamped around his throat tightly, bending over backwards to touch the bells-

Kakashi pushed his fingers into a pressure point at the back of Satsuki's thigh, and threw her off of him. She skidded through the dust, narrowing her eyes.

He didn't look the slightest bit fazed.

Satsuki stood straight and bent her back; she poised one leg slightly outwards on the ground, and with every ounce of grace she had in her body, she began to spin.

After a few moments, the clearing was filled with a thick coat of dust.

_'Naruto... you'd better know what you're doing!'_

"Over here!"

Kakashi was very suddenly barraged with a mass of Narutos, dog-piling him until it became apparent that they were hugging a log.

"Even working together, you three really aren't cutting it," Kakashi said, reaching for his book.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"

And out of the dust, came an immense fireball.

Naruto blinked, and jumped back into the trees, and Kakashi jumped to the side of the fireball, the edge of the flames skimming his pants. He made some sort of affirmative noise at the assault, but looked around for a moment.

"Where is Saku-"

He very suddenly became aware of the smell of burning paper, and the floor beneath him exploded.

Naruto cheered loudly, until the chunks of burnt wood hit the floor, and Sakura, Satsuki and Naruto found themselves being tightly bound together by a length of ninja wire.

"Wha-!"

They hit each other with a monstrous amount of force, and collapsed to the ground. Kakashi walked over, dusting off his pants.

"You three are pathetic," he said, and his tone was so cold that Satsuki could feel Naruto stiffen against her back. "That fireball set off the exploding tags in the ground. I'd be impressed... but you haven't even managed to land a scratch on me."

He knelt down in front of them. "I won't send you back to the academy. You three..."

For a split second, the three relaxed-

"...should give up on being ninja!"

Naruto's outcry came first. " _What?!_ "

"You three lack any talent whatsoever," Kakashi said, voice cold. "Sakura took no part in whatever plan you executed, and you three were completely uncoordinated. Satsuki was the only one who showed any potential, but even she met her downfall by not asking Sakura for help."

Kakashi looked at them, and spoke with a harsh tone. "You are assigned as a three-man cell for a reason. This exercise was about teamwork from the _beginning_."

"Teamwork?" Sakura said. "But you only have _two_ bells!"

Kakashi turned his gaze to her. "With the intention of splitting you three up. If any of you had bothered to put the team first, you'd have succeeded!"

Sakura's jaw closed.

"But Kakashi-sensei, you don't get it!" Naruto said angrily. "Sakura-chan came up with that plan, and she implanted those exploding tags in the ground when Satsuki created that dust cloud!"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Even a tactician needs basic fighting skills, and Sakura has none."

After some awkward movements, Sakura found herself tied against the post.

Their teacher walked towards the strange, carved gem in the middle of the Training Grounds. "Written on this stone, are the names of heroes." Kakashi had his hands in his pockets.

Naruto grinned, and nodded. "Heroes! Now that's cool. What kinda heroes, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Dead ones."

Naruto quieted. The three of them shied away from looking at Kakashi's back, uncomfortable weights settling in their stomachs.

"On this stone are the names of my closest friends," he said, reaching a finger out to trace the engravings.

There was a long silence, and for a moment, Satsuki felt a twinge of pity for the man. He turned around.

"I've decided to give you three one last chance," Kakashi said. "In the afternoon, you will have three hours to get the bells from me. But first, Naruto and Satsuki eat lunch. Sakura doesn't get any. Feed her, and face disqualification."

Sakura's face dropped.

Kakashi disappeared in a swirl of leaves, and Naruto looked left, right, and behind before holding his lunchbox out to Sakura.

She blinked, before panicking. "Naruto, you can't do that! Kakashi-sensei said we couldn't!"

"So what?" Satsuki intercepted. "He's not around. If you don't eat something, you won't be any good."

"Bu-"

" _C'mon_ ," Naruto said. "We've gotta be quick or he'll get back here."

Sakura pushed down a smile. _'Even Satsuki is helping me...!'_

"My hands are kinda..."

"I'll feed you, Sakura-chan!"

"Nuh-uh! No way!"

Satsuki ended up feeding her.

There was a bang and a swirl of smoke-

"You guys-"

The three of them reeled back.

"-pass!"


	6. Grip

"I'm sick of these stupid D-rank missions! I want a C-rank!"

Iruka sighed. "Naruto-"

The week had been filled with an array of mediocre missions, and Satsuki's ears rang from Naruto's complaints. She was beginning to worry about the effects on her hearing.

"No! No more getting the Daimyo's wife's cat! I don't wanna!"

"Naruto-" Iruka said, expression irritated.

"Well," the Hokage said. "Okay."

Team 7 blinked.

"We just received a C-rank, actually."

"What, like protecting a beautiful princess!? Or-"

The Hokage coughed. "Tazuna-san..."

A short man with a straw hat peered through the door, face red with drink.

"He's a bridge builder from the Land of Waves," the Hokage said. "You're required to take him back, and protect him from bandits and the like."

"What, so I'm being taken by a couple of princesses and a midget?" the bridge builder hiccuped, sake in hand with a strange look at the Hokage. "Can these kids really protect me?"

Naruto began howling incoherently at the man, Kakashi holding him by his head.

"Are these ninja insufficient, Tazuna-san?" the Hokage asked, and it wasn't more a question than a challenge. Tazuna gulped.

"In any case," Kakashi said, "I am coming as well. So don't worry."

Tazuna grumbled, tipping his hat.

* * *

The day was blisteringly hot, and Naruto's attitude was as exhausting as ever. For some reason, every single bush was immensely interesting to him.

Satsuki felt uneasy. Very, very uneasy.

She couldn't really pinpoint why, either. The fear was stupid and childish, and she crushed it.

"Satsuki-san?"

She jumped.

"Uh... Satsuki-san?" Sakura said, hands behind her back. "Have you ever left Konoha before?"

Satsuki paused, and nodded.

"Oh," Sakura said, laughing awkwardly. "I haven't... but its not that different here. Just lots of trees, I guess..."

Satsuki was quiet, hands tucked in her pockets. "I was young," she said. "I can't remember it."

"Oh..."

They walked in silence, the air heavy.

"I just wanted to say thank you," Sakura blurted out.

Satsuki raised an eyebrow, and the other girl giggled.

"Well..." Sakura began. "I wouldn't have passed the test if you hadn't had the idea to work together... so I kinda owe it to you..."

"Naruto was the one who made us all work together," Satsuki said. "I wouldn't have asked you, otherwise."

Sakura blinked, and her jaw opened and closed like a fish. After a moment, she blushed and looked at her feet.

"A-Ah... I guess that figures," Sakura said, shuffling her bag awkwardly on her shoulders. "He probably wanted to ask me on a date, or something..."

"It was nice of him."

Sakura looked up, confused. "Eh?"

Satsuki didn't look at her. "Naruto refused the opportunity to get a bell so you could have a chance at getting one."

The road looked so long to her; all she could see was the very, very distant curve of the path ahead.

"Ugh..." Sakura said, and Satsuki twitched. "I mean... its nice and all, but I just wish Naruto would take a hint."

Satsuki finally looked Sakura in the eyes, and said, "I wish you would, too."

And Sakura was left staring at Satsuki's back with a gobsmacked expression on her face.

* * *

"Kakashi-sensei-!"

Sakura froze, and so did Naruto, eyes widening at the two black figures, and in the very same moment, Satsuki lunged.

The two encircled them, running forward with enraged expressions, and Satsuki jumped, graceful and precise as she kicked them simultaneously. With a flick of her wrist, she nailed the chains between them to the tree.

"But what about Kakashi-sense-"

"Yo."

Satsuki could have rolled her eyes.

"Eh?! But- but you-" Naruto stuttered, jaw slack, until he turned to see Kakashi's bloody remains – only to find chunks of wood scattered across the clearing.

Kakashi shrugged. "I was testing how you would react in a dangerous situation. These two men were the Demon Brothers... high level ninja."

Tazuna stiffened beside Sakura.

Their teacher turned a stern eye to the tipsy man, and he shaded his eyes with his hat.

"Tazuna-san," Kakashi said, "Why would high level ninja be after you? You reported this mission as a C-rank. Nothing but bandits at most."

"I..." Tazuna took a shaky breath. "Our country is small. We have no shinobi force. And the ocean trade... our only trade, as an island, is being monopolised by a fearful man." His voice lowered, and his shoulders hunched. "Gatou."

Kakashi blinked.

"Gatou? Kakashi-sensei, who's Gatou?" Naruto said.

"A big-name businessman. And you're saying he's sucking the money out of your country?"

Tazuna nodded. "I... I couldn't afford anything more than C-rank. But I am building the bridge that will end Gatou's reign of tyranny... he fears it. I am _bound_ to be assassinated if you leave now...!"

Naruto struggled to keep his shaking under control.

' _That... those two ninja... they were- I couldn't even move, but Satsuki just... took them out all on her own!'_

He looked at her. Her expression was casual, and she caught his gaze, smirking.

"Hurt, scaredy-cat?"

Naruto gritted his teeth, glaring angrily at her, before Kakashi caught his attention.

"Naruto, your cut will have to be treated in the village. Those blades they used were dipped in poison," he said. "We will have to turn back either way."

The boy looked at his team, and gritted his teeth. _'So, is that it...? I'm holding everyone back...? Like hell...!'_

Naruto plunged a kunai into his hand.

"I swear by this cut on my hand," he said, "that I won't hold anyone back, and that I won't give up. And I never go back on my word...!"

Satsuki suppressed a smile.

"Good idea, but now you're probably going to bleed to death."

"Eh?! Really?!" Naruto howled, clutching his hand.

Satsuki twitched.

' _Nope. He's definitely still an idiot...'_

* * *

The journey continued uneventfully but anxiously all at once; Kakashi seemed slightly on edge, as did Sakura and Tazuna. But Naruto, predictably, had taken Satsuki's victory as an insult to him, and was now making it his duty to protect them.

Or to seem cool.

As Naruto glared at Satsuki and attacked small rabbits, she was beginning to think the latter was the case.

"Get down!"

A massive blade swung above their heads and embedded itself in a tree within an instant, and Satsuki's blood ran cold as the man stood on its hilt met her gaze.

* * *

"We're going to be climbing trees."

"Kakashi-sensei, I know how to climb a tree!"

"Ah..." Kakashi put on a false-perplexed expression. "But can you do it without using your hands?"

Kakashi hauled himself up the tree, crutches and all, and Naruto fist-pumped ecstatically, bouncing on the heels on his feet.

" _Yes!_ Something I can _finally_ do!"

And with a fair degree of astonishment, Satsuki watched as Naruto ran up the tree, hands on his hips as he grinned down at her.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Well done, Naruto."

_'Where did he learn something like that...?'_

Their teacher looked down at them, walking down the tree. "As you can see, Naruto already understands this exercise. By infusing chakra into your feet, you stick your feet to the tree."

Satsuki lifted her foot to the tree, and found herself hopping to regain balance as she was repelled from the bark.

"Too much, and you're thrown away from the bark... too little, and you won't stick. It may take you a while to get the hang of it-"

"Sensei!"

As Sakura waved from her perch upon a branch, Satsuki finally felt the crushingly embarrassing feeling of being the dead last.

* * *

The sun beat down on Satsuki like her mother's stern voice had when she was young, and she awoke groggily.

"Are you alright?"

She jerked away, blinking at the strange girl who had such a soft expression. Worry knotted itself on the girl's eyebrows, and she asked Satsuki again. "Miss, are you alright?"

Satsuki blinked, forcing her vision to focus, before nodding dumbly.

The girl smiled. "I'm glad. But why would you sleep in a place like this?"

Satsuki yawned, looking around at the trees and the warm grass beneath her. ' _Ah. I fell asleep after all that training...'_

She sat up, rolling the kinks out of her shoulders and neck.

"I was training."

The girl smiled. "Ah... are you a shinobi?"

Satsuki nodded, taking note of her kimono, and of the woven basket beside her. The girl noticed her wandering gaze, and smiled.

"I was here to collect herbs. A loved one is sick... these herbs relieve fever. Why are you training, then?"

The Uchiha thinned her lips. The sun was blinding.

"To get stronger."

The girl beside him nodded.

"But for what purpose do you become stronger?" Her head tilted. "Is there anyone who is precious to you?"

Satsuki blinked, turning to the girl sat beside her.

"Precious?"

The girl turned, hair brushing the edges of her face. "Someone to protect."

Satsuki scoffed, and the other girl's face changed a little. "Do you not have anyone like that, then?"

"I don't _want_ anyone like that," Satsuki said, speaking as though the words stung her lips.

Now, the girl wasn't saying anything at all, and Satsuki found herself speaking instead.

"My only purpose is to avenge the deaths of my family. Nothing else."

For a moment, it seemed as though Satsuki's coldness had silenced the girl, until she sighed and looked at Satsuki with eyes that stirred emotion in her.

It was almost as though she understood.

"How sad."

_'Sad...?'_

"Like you'd know," Satsuki spat.

The girl turned her sad – her sad, sad gaze – away from Satsuki. "I suppose not. But death is always sad." The girl's eyes closed. "I'm sorry for your loss."

Satsuki couldn't bear to look at her.

"It was a long time ago," she said.

The girl said nothing, staring at her knees, until she broke the silence. "I lost my family at a young age," she said. "I was lost for a long time. I had no purpose... a street urchin, simply trying to eat and drink.

"I found someone... I began to love someone. We are... we are strongest when we protect those precious to us."

"Do you truly have no one?"

"They would just be a liability," Satsuki said, anger bubbling in her voice like an unattended stove.

"Why?"

"Because I have an ambition, and I can't let anyone get in my way. I have to kill my brother – no matter what." Satsuki resisted the urge to attack the girl. She was seething.

The girl closed her eyes. "That isn't true. With others, you are truly strong."

"He told me to hate him, to attain power to kill him... and I will. Others will just hold me back."

"If he had done such an evil to you, why would you still listen to him?"

Satsuki couldn't help but admire the softness of the girl's voice, even as she spewed atrocities.

"Do you still value what he has to say, as a brother?"

"Is it perhaps, that you maybe still love him? Despite his crimes?" the girl asked, and her face was the picture of innocence, but all Satsuki could see was red.

She held back her fists.

"I will kill Itachi. _You_ ," Satsuki said, the words tasting of poison, "could never understand."

She stood up, unsteady on her feet, and turned to leave the wood.

"Oi! Satsuki!" Naruto's orange tinge lit up the trees like a wildfire. "Who's the pretty girl you were talkin' to? And where've you _been_ all night?"

"Training."

"Oh-"

"And sir," the girl called after them, "I'm a boy."

"W- _What?!_ "

* * *

_'That's it... if Naruto attacks from the outside...!'_

"Satsuki!"

Satsuki twitched, and Naruto grinned.

"I came in here to save you!"

After a moments searching, Satsuki could find no words.

_'Fucking idiot...!'_

"You... You...!" Satsuki said, mouth opening and closing. "You're such an idiot! Why didn't you stay _outside?!_ "

"Hey! I was just trying to help!" Naruto huffed, and Satsuki took a deep breath.

 _'I can't kill him. I can't kill him.'_ Satsuki directed her attention to the glinting ice mirrors about them _. 'I've gotta take care of this guy first...!'_

"You two will die here."

The glow of the mirrors blinded Satsuki, and she was riddled with senbon and thrown to the ground beside Naruto. Every movement burned, and Satsuki's body gave out beneath her weight.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

"Stop it-!" Satsuki cried.

The clones leapt, and in the same instant, disappeared. Naruto flew back with an agonised cry, and Satsuki winced.

 _'There's... there's no way we can keep this up...!'_ she thought, looking at the icy reflections of Haku.

"Ugh... you think you're so great..." Naruto groaned, sitting up, senbon pointing out of his shoulder. "I won't lose here! I... I have a dream! To become Hokage and be acknowledged by my village, and I won't die before I see it!"

Satsuki watched Naruto stand up with a strange sort of awe.

"I too, have a dream," said the masked reflection. "I must make my precious one's dream come true. For that... I will become a shinobi, and kill off my emotions. Like you, I will die before my dream fails...!"

"I won't lose to you!" Naruto yelled. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

"Stop!"

In seconds, Naruto was thrown back down again, bloodier than ever this time, but Satsuki had seen – for a split second –

_'That movement...!'_

Naruto did it again, and Satsuki found it once more; a trail, the lithe form of Haku, moving from mirror to mirror at such a speed-

_'Even if I can see it... that's no help now...!'_

"Naruto," she breathed, her voice strained. "Can you do that once more?"

"Of course I can, bastard," Naruto said, smirking, but Satsuki saw how his posture faltered, his laboured breathing – _'He's too much of an idiot to admit it, but he won't last much longer...'_

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

And Satsuki swept her foot through the water, kicking it into the air, and – _'there it is!'_ \- the water was repelled by Haku's movement, bouncing with every movement.

_'If I time it right-'_

Satsuki saw her enter a mirror, and lifted her fingers to her mouth.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"

Haku veered closely out of the way of the fireball, the edges of his clothes singed. The barrage of attacks stopped, and Naruto slumped to the floor.

"Shit," Satsuki said, turning to the boy. He was crumpled on the floor. "Naruto, get up!"

"Just... just a _sec_ , asshole..."

Haku narrowed his eyes. _'I have to take this opportunity. That girl is tracking my movements... I can't afford to let this battle continue. It must end here...!'_

He launched a barrage of senbon at Satsuki, carefully aimed-

Satsuki picked up a senbon from beneath her, and carefully, awkwardly, and just barely deflected all of them. Her breathing was heavy.

"Naruto! Get up! I can't cover for you any longer!" she yelled. Naruto looked at her, but his gaze was hazy and unfocused.

"I will... bastard..." Naruto whispered, but in the same moment, he collapsed backwards.

Satsuki's heart sank.

"Your friend won't be getting back up," Haku said. "This fight is over for you."

_'She can't read my movements... surely. The human eye is not fast enough... this blow will be the last.'_

Satsuki picked Naruto up, and jumped out of the way.

 _'How is she...?!'_ Haku thought. _'But- is that...'_

And in both of Satsuki's eyes, lay Sharingan.

Satsuki smirked.

"Even with those eyes," Haku said, "how much longer can you manage like this? You're tiring quickly."

Satsuki glared, but her muscles were screaming. _'It's true... I can't keep this up...'_

"Like... _hell...!_ "

Satsuki turned to see Naruto rising like a corpse from the dead. His grin was wide, but stained with blood.

"C'mon, Satsuki," Naruto said, and Satsuki could see- she could see how every limb quivered, how even his smile trembled with that pain. "We've gotta... take this guy out."

Haku's eyes narrowed, and he was ruthless with every barrage – Naruto was inadequate, even standing, the girl pulling him out the way, pushing him, even picking him up when need be- he was not a partner, but a liability, and now, Haku could see she was tiring-

Satsuki collapsed to one knee.

"Satsuki-!"

"Naruto," she breathed. "Naruto, I'm... I'm..."

She fell to her side, eyes shut.

"This is the end," Haku whispered, tone quiet and sad as it echoed through the domes. The senbon came, and Naruto saw-

 _'No!_ No- _not Satsuki!'_

* * *

With a grunt of pain, Satsuki hauled herself up.

Every movement pushed a senbon further into her, the wounds leaking with blood. Her vision was failing her, and her chakra was near gone, but after waiting a few dazed moments, her shaky double vision cleared.

She saw the injured, damaged body of Haku lying on the icy ground.

"You did it!" she breathed, eyes wide with disbelief and shock but pure elation, "Naru-"

The wet, half-gag half-cough noise reverberated off every mirror, the splash of blood thick and gruesome on the ground. Naruto's legs were shaking, but he turned back to Satsuki with a pained and slow movement. His smile stole Satsuki's breath.

"You look... you look stupid..."

"You," she whispered. Senbon protruded from his neck like sticks of incense.

"You... protected me..."

The blaring orange of Naruto bounced off every mirror in a world of cold blue and white.

"You're awake... good..."

His voice was hoarse and sore with pain, but she could hear the laughter in it.

He looked away from her. "Stop being... being a wimp..."

His breathing was so heavy.

"I never asked you," she said. There was so much blood beneath Naruto. "I never _asked_ you to do this! Why didn't you just... just stay the hell _out_ of this!? I... I _hate_ you!"

All she could hear was her heartbeat, now, banging in the midst of mirrors and mist.

(Naruto remembered the time when Satsuki lashed out at a cashier.)

" _You know, it wasn't that important-"_

" _Shut up."_

" _-why'd you yell at that lady if you didn't even want any?!"_

"You just don't get it. I..." Naruto said, shaking on his feet. "I don't care... whether you asked..."

Naruto crumpled, and Satsuki found herself grabbing him by those senbon-ridden arms with her senbon-ridden own and they were both so hurt but why did he look like he was going to-

"Hokage..." he said. "I always wanted to be... Hokage, but I guess it isn't so... so important now, huh...?"

Satsuki had never seen him smile like that. It was a quiet smile.

"I thought..." he coughed. "I thought that was the most... important thing to me, but..."

_'Don't say things like that...!'_

Satsuki tried to speak, but all that came out was air that fell away like water and blood.

Blood gurgled from his throat like a spluttering fountain. A splatter of blood stained Satsuki's cheek.

"Promise me..." Naruto choked out, "Promise me you won't lose to this loser... and that you won't... die..."

Naruto's hand was reaching upwards.

"I promise," she whispered. "Promise me, too." Satsuki's voice was choked. "Promise me you won't die."

Naruto exhaled, smiling a bloody grin. "I promise. And Uzumaki Naruto... never goes back on his word."

Satsuki nodded, her breath hitching as his eyes shut and his body relaxed in her arms.

His smile slipped away from his lips as he died.

" _Naruto...!_ "

She settled her head in the nook of his neck, breathing in shakily.

_'He still smells of... of fucking ramen and soil...!'_

She couldn't look at his face any more. Her eyes stung.

_'How can he... how could this...?!'_

"Naruto," Satsuki whispered, her vision clouding. "Naruto, you _liar...!_ "

She laid Naruto's body gently on the ground. Satsuki tried her hardest not to look at that unsmiling face. Haku stood up.

"He ran into a trap for someone he cared about," the boy said. "He was... a true shinobi. He gave up his life for a friend. His death is a noble one."

"Naruto had a future," Satsuki said, kneeling and looking upwards, searching for a glimpse of the blue sky.

Satsuki gritted her teeth. "Naruto... Naruto had dreams...!"

"You took _everything_ from him...! He wasn't just a shinobi, and he wasn't noble... he was _Uzumaki Naruto!_ "

"I'm sorry," Haku said. "For the sake of my dream... one of us must die here. Your friend made a noble sacrifice for you. If you die here... will you be able to face him in the afterlife?"

"Don't talk about him," Satsuki said, "Like you have the _right_."

It stank of blood.

"Don't talk about Naruto. Don't you _dare...!_ "

She brought her gaze to the slits of the mask.

"You aren't going where Naruto's going," Satsuki said, and her mouth formed into a twisted smile. She walked.

Haku said nothing at all, taking up a twisted stance with a handful of senbon. He moved-

"But I promise you this-"

He ran forward, closer-

"-You _will_ die today!"

And three tomoe swirled in each eye.


	7. Gust

' _Those eyes… she's not the same as she was earlier. I can't take any more risks…'_

Haku held the senbon to eye-level, watching Satsuki carefully. The girl smirked.

"With these eyes," she said, "I can see your every movement. It's only a matter of time, now…"

The malice in each word sent a shiver up Haku's spine.

He switched from mirror to mirror, firing quickly, but she dodged faster; no, that wasn't it - she wasn't any faster. She was more efficient; every move Satsuki made was quicker, each route she made ideal, conserving her energy with every duck and jump and dodge.

Each single barrage of senbon Haku sent was evaded, and perfectly so.

_'My chakra… I'm too close to running out...'_

He stopped, eyeing her carefully through the mask. She smirked, breathing heavily.

"Don't you see?" she said, smirking. "Revenge… revenge has brought me this beautiful, _delicious_ power. And with it, I will _erase_ you!"

Haku's lips thinned.

"So you may believe…"

Haku ran once more, but this time, he observed more than he attacked.

And now he saw: Satsuki was _watching_ him.

She was running, diving, dodging, carefully avoiding her friend's corpse, but more than anything, she was _watching_ him. She was watching his every step, and she was _calculating._

This instilled a great sense of fear into him.

_'Is she identifying how I fight? What exactly does she plan to do…?'_

Haku truly had no idea, until _it_ happened.

There came a single, gross miscalculation; a situation he had noticed due to the subtlety with which she set it up.

He had allowed her to stray too far from him, too far indeed; minutely, with an expertly-executed maneuver, Satsuki had become far too near to one of the mirrors.

Haku had noticed, and dived across-

To which Satsuki sent a horridly forceful foot into his stomach at close range, sending him smashing into the mirror behind him.

Haku winced, sitting up. Blood gathered in his mouth, spilling down his chin.

"Futile," Haku said, and so it was; he melded back into the mirror quickly, with Satsuki within the dome all the same.

Even as everything seemed fine - even though the setback was minor, and he was quickly melding back into his ice mirrors - Haku felt a great, unerring sense of unease as Satsuki smirked. The turn of her lips was not a pleasant one.

She ran.

It took every ounce of Haku's effort to try and catch her, and he did not. Although Zabuza had told Haku, once or twice, of the sheer prestige of an Uchiha eye, it meant very little to him; even as he had observed Kakashi, it had not seemed so superior.

But now, Haku understood; the Sharingan, its precise eyesight and copying - were all efficiency. A wonderful, and fantastically useful efficiency.

She was not faster than Haku, oh no. But she was _efficient._ There was no mistake in what she did, because there was no mistake in what she expected to come.

After ten minutes of horribly tense evasion and attack, Haku's chakra reached its limit. The mirrors collapsed.

* * *

_The weapon master's shop smelled strongly of sawdust and metal, and a bespectacled man sat at the desk with a welding mask that sat oddly over his glasses._

_Satsuki frowned. Her mother was chatting animatedly with the man, but Satsuki could only find the situation immensely uncomfortable. She didn't like it here, and she made that obvious to her mother by tugging on the material on the elbow of her cardigan._

_"Mother," she said, quietly. "Mother, are we done?"_

_The week previous, Satsuki had been dragged to this shop, and forced to stretch her hands into awkward and strange positions whilst a man with a measuring tape wiggled his way around her hand. It had been unpleasant, and she was hoping something similar wouldn't happen, but the situation was risky. She needed to leave; Satsuki considered spontaneously bursting into tears, but although Mikoto was gentle, she had her doubts that her mother would excuse her for something so stupid._

_"Satsuki, behave. The man has prepared something e_ _specially for you!"_

'Oh,' _Satsuki thought, regarding at the slightly tipsy looking man._ 'Oh no.'

_The man nodded at her, and stood up, disappearing into the back of the shop. Satsuki's anticipation built for a moment, until he came out with a large wooden box, sealed with golden clasps. It was much cleaner than her current environment, and he set it down on his desk, turning it to Satsuki with a gentle smile._

_"Go on," her mother urged kindly with a hand on her shoulder. "Open it."_

_Satsuki undid the clasps awkwardly, and opened the box slowly. When she saw the contents, she_ _couldn't help but gasp._

_There lay two fans, carefully overlaying one another in a bed of soft, burgundy velvet. They were black, emblazoned with the Uchiha symbol, with untainted metal spokes of a clear, reflective silver._

_She picked them up tentatively, and the carefully lacquered wooden outer cover settled into Satsuki's palm perfectly. Satsuki gaped, and at her mother's expectant look, she began to clasp the fan, splaying it out again with a deliberate motion._

_She had never felt something so natural to her._

_"As an Uchiha kunoichi," she said, "Tessenjutsu is our greatest strength, passed from generation to generation. After seeing you playing with my own tessen fans, I decided it was time that I commissioned your own."_

_Even after her mother was long gone, Satsuki trained with tessen fans; they were the pivotal point of the Gliding Edge style. They became her pride, and so, not even for her academy bell test, nor her first C-rank mission, had she brought them. They were a gift, to her._

_Her outlook on this soon changed._

* * *

In Haku's stupor, Satsuki took the opportunity to reach down, and root for two adequately-sized shards of ice from the shattered mirrors.

No such shards came, but awkwardly shaped and somewhat disproportionate ones did.

Satsuki knew she was pushing her boundaries of skill by using a non-collapsable substitute for fans; let alone ones that weren't sizably comparable to her regular fans of choice.

Haku was breathing heavily behind his mask as he regained his senses, vision wavering as he attempted to steady himself.

Satsuki knew there was no chance she could pull out any more ninjutsu.

The two of them settled into a careful stance, and there was an unspoken decision.

_'Taijutsu.'_

"Gliding Edge," Satsuki said. She never broke her gaze, and her body contorted into a delicately balanced pose, with the shards splaying out from her palms.

"First Stance."

_'Those shards... she's incorporated them into her taijutsu style perfectly, as though she is substituting for a pair of fans...'_

"Tessenjutsu," Haku said, and Satsuki's eyes narrowed.

"When handled carefully, an uchiwa has the power to both rekindle a flame... and to smother it," Satsuki said, her voice even.

Satsuki held the two shards carefully, the two makeshift weapons grazing the thin flesh of her wrists. She smirked.

"So allow me to show you the true power," Satsuki said, "of an Uchiha kunoichi."

The style of the Gliding Edge was a difficult one, that was trained into the Uchiha women from an early age; the grace it required became obvious in every mannerism of an Uchiha woman. The ability to use momentum to expend less energy; careful, graceful, and precise.

The key was to allow the fans to become an extension of that elegance, and Satsuki wished more than anything at that moment that she had brought those fans.

That had been a mistake, and she was paying for it.

Satsuki had no more room for mistakes, and she ran forward.

Haku held longer, thicker senbon in either hand, parrying the deadly edge of an ice shard as Satsuki brought it around in a perfect curve.

The momentum of the spin swung Satsuki's balance to the side, and she crouched, bringing her arms around in a quick spin to hack at Haku's legs; Haku moved out of the way quickly, the sharp edge nicking the cotton of his clothing.

Satsuki quickly launched herself up, running forward with the two shards poised in front of her, and her movement was too quick for Haku to respond to as he staggered on his feet from the quick dodge of Satsuki's low swipe before-

Haku plunged the senbon into the shards, Satsuki pressing the two pieces closer to each side of his jaw, until Haku crowbarred the two shards into the air and out of Satsuki's grip. The success was tainted with the dry heaving that accompanied Satsuki's leg as the girl used his gut as leverage to flip over backwards and away from him.

Satsuki reached for two kunai, and in one swift movement, launched them at Haku.

Haku jumped, but the movement wasn't sufficient; they implanted themselves deeply into his left shin. He faltered.

Haku reached for his senbon, jumping backwards and launching a barrage at them at Satsuki. She did not even move, using the flat edge of the shards to negate every single one. Haku bit his lip.

_'She's fast... just as fast as me, without those ice mirrors, but it's obvious that she can track my movements faster than she can dodge them... and with my legs damaged like this, there's no way I can keep up with that... I have to do something!'_

Haku winced, picking the kunai out of his leg and jumping backwards. He was running the risk of bleeding out, and Satsuki noticed.

"Do you plan on dying here?"

"I wouldn't plan for it," Haku said, "But I will do whatever I have to as a tool."

Satsuki scoffed, settling into a twisted pose. "A tool?" she sneered. "What a sad existence. Living as an instrument of someone else's desires..."

Haku's legs were dripping with blood, but he jumped back, sending a flurry of senbon Satsuki's direction as he did.

"Are you truly that different? Shinobi are tools of a village... I am the tool of a man. You, especially, should know..."

 _'What is he trying to say...?!'_ Satsuki thought, angering quickly.

"I am the tool of my own intentions," Satsuki hissed, lunging for Haku, and the red of her eyes struck fear into his heart.

_'Those eyes... is she even seeing me...?!'_

Satsuki was too fast, and Haku saw the recognition of his strike before it came, even though she was not fast enough to evade it. As his senbon threatened to pierce through another shard, Satsuki brought the ice shard down to scrape along Haku's arm; Haku plunged the senbon into the girl's shoulder, and her arm loosened and dropped one shard. The victory was short-lived, as Satsuki unleashed a full-frontal assault.

Haku was mesmerised slightly by the style; it was brute force disguised as beauty.

_'You'd fall in love with it before you realised you were dead...'_

Satsuki parried Haku's senbon with the her forearm pressing against Haku's, swiping the shard in her other hand across Haku's stomach. The boy leaned backwards and jarred himself out of the girl's grip, attempting to kick Satsuki's jaw as he flipped over backwards.

The move backfired as Satsuki dodged easily, bringing the shard around with a momentous force that cut a significant amount of Haku's hair and left a gash in his mask.

The hair hadn't had time to fall to the ground when Satsuki stood on her hands and brought her legs around to collide with the side of Haku's head.

The hit launched Haku a few metres, his blood leaving a smudged trail.

Through a hazy double vision, Haku began to panic at Satsuki's approaching form.

_'At this rate... Satsuki will escape, and Zabuza-sama will...'_

Haku stood up, staggering on his feet, and he knew that Satsuki could have killed him in that instant. Whether she did not in order to prolong his suffering, or out of pity, he would never know.

"For Zabuza-sama... for the sake of his dreams… I _cannot_ die here…!"

"Tch..."

Haku looked at the young girl. Her expression was contorted with fury.

"Don't expect to see tomorrow," Satsuki said, "when Naruto won't."

Haku smiled beneath his mask.

"True strength... comes about for those we care about. Your will to avenge, and my will to protect..." he said, clasping senbon between each finger, "...are both manifestations of love."

Satsuki scowled, and poised her leg at a 180 degree angle.

"Gliding Edge," she said. "Second Stance."

And with a deafening bang, Satsuki's foot hit the floor.

_'A chakra trick… clever. She amplified the noise...'_

He was awakened from his stunned stupor by an elbow to the kidney and the heel of Satsuki's foot being slammed into the back of his knee. She quickly pushed down on his shoulder, sending him to the floor before her knee was rammed into the small of his back. Haku spat blood.

_'Zabuza-sama...'_

"Naruto is finally smiling," Satsuki said, and her mouth was twisting into a smile. "Naruto is finally _smiling!_ "

Her laugh shook him to his core.

How many times had Haku seen this? The insane delusions of the grieving…?

"Not like his corpse! Naruto is finally laughing again!" Satsuki howled, laughing hysterically. She doubled over, eyes filling with tears of hysteria. "Laughing! _Laughing!_ _LAUGHING!_ "

Haku took this opportunity to stumble away from the girl, her laughs echoing far in the mist.

Satsuki's laughs began to wash away into mild chuckles, and she looked up, Sharingan spinning wildly and grinning.

"Your death is so close I can taste it," she breathed, "and it is _wonderful_."

And then Satsuki's mouth was at his ear, plunging a shard of ice towards the base of his back. Her whisper was warm in his ear.

" _Die._ "

With an abrupt movement, Haku felt several things.

She felt the interference of Zabuza at her back, as he grabbed the Satsuki's slender wrist and swung her, with impressive force, elsewhere.

Then came the interception of Kakashi, quickly engaging with Zabuza, and Haku turned around to see the conflict in his eyes.

This had been with unclear reason until a second later.

Zabuza had made a decision.

* * *

Satsuki had forcefully kicked, with every ounce of her strength, the pile of ice shards towards Haku, and had fully expected the boy to die.

Of all variations Satsuki had expected, she had not accounted for the possibility of Zabuza, the Demon of the Mist, jumping in front of the mass of shards.

Silence reigned, and then, after a moment - with nothing but a gurgle - Zabuza collapsed.

"Zabuza."

The whisper was empty sounding, and Satsuki had not heard Haku refer to his master without any kind of honorific.

"Zabuza," Haku repeated, crawling slowly towards the man. "Zabuza. _Zabuza._ "

"Haku," the man said, his voice weak. He sounded like he was going to say more, but nothing came.

"Zabuza," Haku said. "You fool."

Zabuza coughed. The sound made Satsuki cringe.

" _You're_ a fool," Zabuza said. "Working for a washed out demon like me…"

"I'm no fool! Zabuza… Zabuza-sama, we have to- we'll break the deal, with Gatou, I'll escape and heal you-"

"Shut up, Haku. That's enough."

Zabuza sounded tired; weary.

"Why?" Haku said, choking with the thousands of things he was trying to push out at once. "Why would you- I'm just a tool to you, Zabuza-sama! For a tool, why would you-"

"Is that how you saw it?" Zabuza said, voice straining. "For a ninja, Haku, you were always so gullible."

The bridge was quiet, and though opportunity certainly presented itself, Satsuki herself knew - and knew through the quiet, unchallenging posture of Kakashi - that to attack now was simply not right.

"You were too kind," Zabuza said. "Too kind for killing. I'm… I'm sorry for that. I have… a lifetime of apologies to make to you… worst of all, letting your dreams rely on a man like me…"

"I made that choice, Zabuza-sama," Haku whispered.

"The good in this world comes through the young. The brutal practices of that Mizukage… making young children kill one another… even as I killed anyone and everyone for money, in my mind was that belief. It doesn't atone for my sins, but…

"I'm sorry for this, Haku," Zabuza said, eyes shutting. "For all of the things I made you do. Each time, I told you to kill your heart… but you were just too gentle for that. One, final thing…"

"Yes?"

"Take that stupid mask off… there is no shame in your tears."

Zabuza passed away.

"Zabuza," Haku whispered. "Zabuza."

With a choked cry, Haku lay his head on Zabuza's chest and sobbed.

The act was pitiful; tears that fell silently, the tears of a boy without purpose. Satsuki had willed herself not to look away, but there came a point.

"What did you…" Haku said, the words not quiet but a whisper all the same. "What did you expect me to do with this worthless life of mine, Zabuza-sama…?"

Haku clasped the sides of his head, stumbling to his feet with an uncertainty of balance.

Kakashi watched with bated breath, poised to strike. The boy had his head in his hands, fingers pressed tightly to his flesh with tufts of hair clenched in between.

His quivering, unstable rage quieted, and Haku slowly pulled away his mask, and dropped it to the floor.

Satsuki froze.

"It was you," she said. " _You!_ In the woods!"

Haku was silent.

Satsuki felt rage bubbling inside of her, and she clenched her fists. "If you have dreams of protecting those you love… how could you _possibly…!?_ How could you _possibly_ have done this?! If you understand that, then…!"

"My dreams," Haku said, "were Zabuza's dreams. My hopes were Zabuza's hopes. I lived for the purpose of serving him… and without him, I…"

"Living for the purpose of serving someone else's desires," Satsuki said, boiling with anger, "is _ridiculous._ "

"Is that not what _you_ have done?"

Satsuki stopped.

"Is that not what you have done," Haku said, "by living your life in hatred, as your brother asked? By living your life in a search for power? Are you not serving the desires of someone else, as a tool? And even then… your existence is reliant on vengeance. Reliant on an empty justice…"

"Empty justice," Satsuki said, her voice low. "Empty justice?! You _killed_ Naruto! He did nothing but dream of being acknowledged! He was naive and stupid and he pissed me off, but you took away his hopes and dreams! Don't call this an _empty justice…!_ "

Haku was quiet for a moment, and then he closed his eyes, head tilted towards the sky as though he were searching for stars behind his eyelids.

"But what would Naruto say? Would he thank you?"

And then, Satsuki had no more words for Haku.

"You told me in the woods that day," Haku said, "that you had no one worthy of protecting. That you didn't need anyone like that, that bonds like that would only hold you back. And yet…

"It seems as though, had it not been for Naruto's intervention, you would be dead."

Satsuki didn't say anything.

"Ahh! You useless bastards."

The ninja flicked their attention to the end of the bridge, and out stepped - with a platoon of mercenaries at his back - a short man, with thick black glasses, and a disgusting grin.

"With all the things I'd heard about you two, I thought you could polish off a decrepit old man," he snorted, "But that's not the case, eh?"

Kakashi narrowed his eyes. "Gatou."

"And you two were expensive, you know!" Gatou said, stepping forward with a reliance on his cane. "Figured I'd finish both of off to replenish my funds, you know what I'm saying? But looks like half the job is done!"

Haku stood from his master's body, and turned to Gatou.

"I have one final gift to you, ninja of Konoha... on one condition." His voice was as cold as his ice.

"What?" Satsuki whispered, and her heart went cold as Haku turned his face to her and opened his eyes.

His eyes were formed of an entire, unseeing, illustrious ice, with not iris nor pupil to speak of; pure, untainted ice, in the sockets of Haku's skull-

"Forge your own path," he said. "And find dreams."

A cackle resounded from Gatou's mouth, and Satsuki scowled.

"Dreams! Pretty words for a mercenary!" Gatou said, talking between his snorts. "I won't waste a second on a brat like you now that demon is dead. Harmless, isn't he?"

The jibes were followed by the stout man poking at Zabuza's eyelids with his walking stick, pushing aside the skin to expose the unseeing eyes behind.

Satsuki's face tightened with anger, and she stepped forward purposefully, but was stopped by the silent, motionless stance of Haku.

"My final favour to you all," Haku said, stepping forward with a posture that spoke volumes more than his monotone voice, "is to rid this world of this wretched man."

Satsuki, without thinking, stepped back, and Gatou too stumbled backwards.

"What are you saying, brat...?! Those eyes of yours- g-get him! _Demon child!_ "

Gatou stumbled through his crowd of henchmen, towards the half-constructed edge of the bridge.

"Satsuki-san," Sakura said. "The ocean is...!"

And so, Satsuki looked.

The ocean itself, from the bridge to the radius surrounding it, was freezing, a spiderweb-like network of ice forming from the piers beneath the bridge outwards, the landscape coating in a reflective grey. The falling snow thickened.

There was an affirmative cry amongst the mercenary ranks, their weapons lifting to the sky, and they began forward.

Satsuki felt the shaking of the bridge as there was a sharp, cutting noise and the scraping of crumbling brick.

In the most beautifully disgusting show of murder Satsuki would ever bear witness to, a twisted spire of ice pierced through the bridge and through Gatou, launching through his corpse and spraying body parts and blood over the bridge.

His glasses, and his finger, landed in front of Sakura, staining her ankle with a splash of red.

She threw up.

The mercenaries stilled, their faces dripping with blood, before attempting to run.

Satsuki's hands shook first, and then she found herself on her knees, dry heaving, eyes straining as she vomited.

Haku fell down, and the bridge was quiet.

"Satsuki."

The noise was barely audible, and wiping her mouth, Satsuki responded. The fear permeated her voice.

"Yes?"

"Zabuza-sama," Haku croaked, "Please. Let me see him..."

Her nodding was slow and hesitant, and Satsuki lifted Haku and set him beside Zabuza's corpse. He was light.

The snowfall was slow and gentle as Haku turned to Zabuza's peaceful form, with outstretched, icy fingers.

"Dreaming... do you dream, even in death, Zabuza-sama? And of what...?"

* * *

Satsuki headed to Naruto with a body full of holes, and a heart full of lead.

The mist had cleared, and where Naruto lay, not snow nor blood had tread. The snowfall had stopped short of him, as had the bloodshed; he lay in a bed of ice.

Satsuki walked by his side, and her knees trembled as she knelt down beside him.

Satsuki did not cry.

* * *

_"Do not cry. He led his life as an admirable shinobi, and he died as one."_

_Fugaku's voice was stern, and Satsuki scrubbed at her tears with the sleeve of her black dress, swallowing a hiccup and trying to blink back tears._

_Itachi's presence was empty and unmoving beside her. Satsuki had had half a mind to be indignant at how he ignored her every word, until she had seen the first and only tear fall._

_The day was uncomfortable; storm clouds had lingered overhead continuously, threatening rain and never spilling. When the end of the day had come, and Shisui had been firmly under dirt, Mikoto had took her daughter aside._

_"It's okay to cry," she said._

_Satsuki did not cry._

* * *

Satsuki felt her gut twist when she looked at Naruto. He had not moved an inch.

The hope that he would have was terribly, and illogically, pathetic.

"Liar," she said. Satsuki leaned forward, burying her head in the folds of his orange jacket. It was so cold, and the scent of everything that was Naruto had been stained by blood and the icy air.

"You stupid _liar…_ "

And for a brief moment, she wanted to cry. She wanted tears to come, she wanted to sob; just to prove to herself, to Naruto's dead and empty corpse, that she cared, because only now-

Only now did she see that she _had_ , and it was just so wrong when she saw those things she had said to Haku. That she had said there was no one worth protecting, because-

-because Naruto had cared enough to _die_ for her.

He'd had dreams, and Satsuki had always thought them stupid, irrational and brash, just like she had Naruto, but somewhere along the way had came that spark of-

_"I swear by the cut on this hand that I won't hold anyone back, and that I won't give up. And I never go back on my word…!"_

-belief.

She had _believed_ in Naruto, and yet, the tears _would not come._

The corpse beneath her groaned.

"Eurgh…"

Satsuki started, launching back off of Naruto with wide eyes.

To her complete and utter amazement-

"My… fuck, my _back…_ "

-Uzumaki Naruto-

"Ow… ow, ow _ow…_ "

-was _rising from the dead._

Satsuki's words caught in her throat as Naruto's bright blue eyes met hers. He blinked, before grinning widely.

His laughter resounded across the whole bridge.

"Heh-heh! I fooled you, huh?" Naruto said, laughing and sticking his tongue out at Satsuki. "It's what you get for doubting the word of Uzumaki Naruto!"

Satsuki was speechless.

"You're…" Satsuki whispered, the words refusing to come.

"Uh… Satsuki…?"

Satsuki could only describe the sensation as being dropped from a cliff, only to find Heaven below.

"You idiot," she said, words catching in her throat. "Trying to play off something like that…! And… And I _still_ hate you!"

As she looked at Naruto's smile and open - gloriously, gloriously _seeing!_ \- blue eyes, Satsuki choked, let out a sob, and began to cry.

* * *

And so came the tale of the Great Naruto Bridge.

The bridge that brought the Land of Waves to prosperity was both strong and reliable; just like the ninja who had fought valiantly for it, who had brought the people of that country to believe in the power of unity. And so, it was named after that knuckleheaded ninja.

A fair distance across the bridge, there comes a spot that sends travellers and tradesmen into confusion; no matter what the weather, there is a stretch on this bridge that is thick with mist, and constant, unceasing snowfall.

The tale speaks of a spectre of Ice and a spectre of Mist, who protect the bridge and those who pass by upon it, by misleading those with evil intentions and casting them overboard and allowing a clear path to those with only good in mind.

The unspoken tale speaks of two mercenaries, who died together with nothing more than a young ninja to carry away the tale of their lives and dreams.

The less romantic part of that tale speaks of their pathetic deaths, of how a boy pledged himself to a selfish man, but the better part of that tale speaks of how their tales lived on.

Indeed, their tales lived on, carving the strange, uncertain, and certainly _wrong_ future.

Because those tales, whilst wonderful, and heart-wrenchingly inspirational, were supposed to ascertain the future of a brash young boy, and yet these words had only reached the ears of a cold young girl.

But that was how it went, and so, the future went with it.


	8. Sleep

The first day, Satsuki is anxious.

"You're late!"

"Maa, well, I was- oh, where's Naruto?"

"I don't know. He never turned up…"

"Well. He must be sick. Let's continue…"

* * *

The second day, Sakura is anxious.

"You're late!"

"Maa, well, I was- what, is he sick again?"

"I guess…"

"Hm. I'd expect him to be exhausted after that trip… it's best if we check up on him, but today, we've been summoned..."

* * *

The third day, Kakashi is anxious.

"You're late!"

"Again?"

"Yeah… I guess he must be really sick. Can we go check on him, Kakashi-sensei?"

"That'd be best."

* * *

Knock. Knock.

"Naruto?" Kakashi said.

There were a couple of light footsteps, and the jiggling of a faulty lock, before the door opened.

"Hi," Naruto said. His voice was rough.

He looked awful.

It wasn't in a sickly fashion, Satsuki noted; his skin was the same shade of light brown, and his nails were white and healthy looking. But he looked generally unkempt, with dark bags under his eyes and a distant look in his eyes.

There was a stirring of worry in her chest.

"Where've you been the past two days?" Sakura said, and Satsuki found herself surprised at the gentleness in her voice.

Naruto brought a hand up to scratch the side of his head. He looked down.

"I… I haven't been feeling too great," he said, a laugh in his voice. Satsuki felt as though it was an obligation.

"Haven't you gone to the hospital?" Sakura asked.

Naruto was quiet for a moment, and he didn't look any of them in the eye. One hand pulled at the material on the side of his pants.

"It's not like that," he said, after a moment's thought. "I just…"

"If you're feeling sick, you should go to the hospital," Sakura said, folding her arms. "Staying at home won't make you better. Have you been sleeping?"

Satsuki yearned to say something.

Before their eyes, Naruto's expression and posture reformed itself. He laughed, scratching the back of his head.

"Don't worry about me! I'll be fine!"

Even as Naruto gave them a big smile, and Sakura tried to smile reassuringly back, Satsuki couldn't help but feel a heavy weight settle in the pit of her stomach as they left.

After they had been assigned a simple D-rank, Kakashi apologised and excused himself for the day.

Satsuki's inkling of worry became a dark, permanent blotch on her psyche.

* * *

"What is it, Kakashi?"

Kakashi tucked his book into his pocket.

"Hokage-sama, I am beginning to think that the A rank mission has taken its toll on Naruto."

The Third paused in his calligraphic writings, eyeing Kakashi suspiciously below the tip of his hat. "What do you mean?"

"Naruto took two days leave. I thought he may been ill, or exhausted, but upon visiting him," Kakashi said, expression serious, "Well, Hokage-sama, I'm sure you read the mission report. I think it was a bit severe. After all, the majority of ninja are eased into higher-level missions."

There was a moment of quiet.

"I see," the Hokage said, a plume of smoke leaking from his lips. He stood. "The psychiatric assessment after that incident with his teacher was to be expected, what with that child's resilience..."

Kakashi said nothing. Sarutobi sighed.

"What would you recommend, Kakashi? As his sensei?"

"The situation is delicate," he said.

"Personally," Sarutobi said, "Don't you think it would be better if you saw to it? Perhaps Naruto does not say so much, but I believe you've left a lasting impression on him."

Kakashi nodded, bowing respectfully. "And if Naruto requires further days leave-"

"Paid for," the Third said. "After all, it is hardly his fault that Team 7 got an A-rank. Dismissed."

* * *

"Satsuki. Sakura."

The two genin looked up, one curious and the other irritated.

"Let's go for barbeque. On me."

"Eh? Really?"

* * *

Kakashi turned over a piece of meat on the grill, and it spat viciously in response.

"Sensei?" Sakura said. "What's the deal?"

"'The deal'?"

Satsuki raised an eyebrow. "Why have we come out for barbeque?"

"-on you?" Sakura finished, crossing her arms and looking suspiciously at Kakashi.

"Don't you like barbeque? Do you want ramen?"

Sakura and Satsuki both gave Kakashi a narrowing look, and the man shrugged.

"Talking over food is best."

"Is this about Naruto?" Satsuki said.

The sound of sizzling fat filled the silence.

"Perhaps," Kakashi said, and Sakura ate a small chunk of beef, and swallowed it with an anxious expression.

"He didn't seem like himself," she said. "And Naruto wouldn't miss a mission, even if he was sick…"

Kakashi shoveled three pieces of beef onto the grill, and Satsuki selected one tentatively.

"Being a shinobi has a great mental toll on some people. It's a hard business."

Satsuki stopped, and Sakura blinked.

"Sensei, is Naruto…?"

Kakashi picked two perfectly cooked pieces on Satsuki and Sakura's plates.

"I'm not certain," Kakashi said. "But it seems likely."

Satsuki stared at a small fat bubble popping in a river of grease.

"Naruto?" she said quietly.

_'Naruto? Why Naruto?'_

"It seems more like a moderate case of PTSD. But don't jump to conclusions. Naruto might just have the flu, you know."

Poking at the edge of her beef, the fat sloshed onto the plate in a tiny waterfall of gloopy oil. Satsuki's appetite dripped away with it.

* * *

Satsuki's walk home to her apartment followed much of Naruto's, and she physically steered herself the other way.

She reached her apartment without incident, stepping in and stripping off to get into the shower. The water was cold and welcome.

When she got out, the apartment was just as she had left it. Clean. Everything where it should have been; the bookshelves perfect, the bedcovers untouched, and Satsuki, half-dressed, made herself sweet tea.

Satsuki sat on her bed for a moment more, expecting to hear an obnoxious idiot banging her door down with ' _Hokage's orders!_ '. Her heart sank when nothing came, and every second was more reluctant than the last as she urged herself to get up.

' _Maybe he'll come now. Maybe he'll come now. Maybe he'll come now.'_

It took an immense force to stand herself up, and Satsuki walked clumsily, hot tea spilling over her fingers, to the balcony. Crisp, wilted leaves littered the table outside.

Her plant was dying.

Satsuki cleared up the leaves, crushing them, tucking them beneath the soil, and then she cut up the old soft apples that she never would have eaten anyway, tucking them in the dryness of the soil, sprinkling the plant with water that caught in its leaves.

She set the table further out, the leaves barely catching the evening sun.

When Satsuki went back in, she sat herself at her empty table with paper and ink and attempted to write a letter. She tried once, twice, three times before giving up.

* * *

When Naruto managed to stop staring at the ceiling, he sat himself at his dusty table with paper and pen and attempted to write a letter. He tried, once, twice, ten times before giving up.

* * *

"Naruto?"

The door opened awkwardly, and Naruto smiled brightly.

Sakura noted that he looked a little worse, and his smile looked painful.

"Sakura-chan!"

"Hi," she said. "Can I come in?"

Naruto's feet shuffled awkwardly on the wooden floor, and he allowed the door to gape. Sakura stepped in.

The apartment was messy, and Sakura navigated her way through strewn clothing and ramen pots to the dusty kitchen table with a wrinkled nose. She pulled the chair out, sitting down, and she noted that as dead as Naruto and his apartment looked, his various plants were very much alive.

Sakura coughed awkwardly as Naruto sat down beside her, and she tested the surface of a leaf with her fingers.

"I didn't think you were the kind to keep plants, when I met you," she said, tracing the layer of waxy cuticle on the leaf.

Naruto laughed, rubbing the back of his head, but didn't say anything. The apartment felt empty without the echoes of Naruto's obnoxious opinion, but Sakura didn't prod him any further.

"But," she said, "When I look at you now… I guess you're that kinda guy."

"Yeah?" he said. "Satsuki didn't think so either."

"Really?"

"Yeah… when I told her how to take care of them, she looked confused. But I love plants," he said.

"Huh," Sakura said, letting the leaf slip from her grip and the stem settle back into its vertical stasis. "It's funny… you and Satsuki…"

"What is?"

Sakura looked at a tiny, unopened bud.

"I guess," she said, "I just… when did you two become friends?"

"Friends?" Naruto said. His voice had a tone that made Sakura want to wake him up from this lethargic sleep-walking that he was passing off as sickness.

"You and Satsuki are friends," she said. "I… I dunno. I look at you, and… you two are always at each other's throats, but…."

"Friends," Naruto said again. "If… me and Satsuki are friends, then, Sakura-chan…"

Sakura pouted, folding her arms, but a smile was testing at the edges of her lips. "Maybe we're friends, too."

Naruto was quiet for a moment.

"Really?"

Sakura broke away from her reluctance and smiled brightly at Naruto. "Yeah! We're friends, right? Being on a team has made you a little less annoying, and…"

The way Naruto hung on her every word, with eyes that were so blue and childish, made her heart beat faster.

"I dunno," she said, folding her arms and casting her head towards the window to hide the faint colour of a blush, "Maybe, when we fought Zabuza, and you and Satsuki made that plan… I guess you were kind of…"

The blush intensified slightly, and Sakura coughed.

"I guess you were _kind_ of cool," she said.

Naruto's expression lit up, and his smile made Sakura feel warm from the pits of her chest to her cheekbones.

"Does that mean we can go on a date-"

"No! Stop getting the wrong idea, idiot! And besides, I've eaten!"

"But _Sakura-chan-!_ "

* * *

Satsuki walked up the steps with a heavy bag.

It smelled strongly of salt and miso. She pictured Naruto's apartment in her head as she reached the right floor, walking along and counting the numbers carefully.

His door was worn, painted an off shade of green. She reached to knock-

"Come _on,_ Sakura-chan!"

"No, I don't care if I have to sew the cover myself! That couch is ugly!"

"It matches my door-"

"Your door is ugly too!"

"Oi-!"

Satsuki heard the smile in Naruto's voice.

She rapped on the door with strength, and it opened stiffly to reveal Naruto smiling brightly.

"Satsuki- that smell!" he said, grinning and stepping forward. "Ramen?!"

Satsuki held the bag out to Naruto, and the boy inhaled deeply, grinning widely, before he opened the door behind him with his foot.

"Are you gonna come in too? Sakura's here!"

"No."

"But-" he protested, eyebrows knotted. Satsuki looked away.

"I have somewhere to be," she said.

Satsuki put her hands in her pockets, turned around, and walked straight back the way she came.

Naruto blinked.

"Uh- bye, Satsuki-san!" Sakura called after her, rushing to the door to see Satsuki's retreating back.

Satsuki said nothing, but once Naruto's door had clicked shut and she had began descending the stairs, she realised she was clenching her fists.

* * *

"Jeez, something was up with _her…_ "

"I'm sure she's just worried about you," Sakura said. "She brought you ramen, after all."

Naruto drew up a chair, placing the bag on the table and grabbing some chopsticks. "Well," he said, pouting sullenly, "She could have just _stayed._ "

As he unwrapped the parcel, he realised there were two bowls.

"She got me two?"

One was filled with miso ramen, and the other was similar. Fresh tomato was cut all throughout the dish.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I don't even like tomatoes… do you want that one, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura looked at the tomatoes, sitting atop the noodles and resting against the side of the bowl.

Her heart sank.

"No," she said, thinking of Satsuki's strange expression as she had handed Naruto the noodles. "I'll pass."

* * *

"Naruto. Good to see you."

"Yeah, Kakashi-sensei!"

Kakashi passed the three of them sheets.

"What're these, Kakashi-sensei?"

"I've entered you three for the chuunin exams."


	9. Blundering

Satsuki walked slowly, tucking the paper into her pocket, and hesitantly, Sakura walked behind.

The silence permeated the air.

"So… Satsuki-san," Sakura said, hands fumbling behind her back. "What are you going to do?"

Satsuki walked, not sparing Sakura a glance. "Isn't it obvious?"

Sakura's stomach dropped. _'I knew it...'_

"Well, uh," Sakura said, fiddling with her hair. "I… I don't really have any idea… what we're, y'know, up against.."

"It doesn't matter," Satsuki said. "We're strong enough, and there's no point doing these D-rank missions any more. I have to become stronger."

"Stronger?" Sakura repeated.

' _To kill… a certain man.'_

"That thing you said," the girl said, fidgeting with an awkward smile as she avoided Satsuki's gaze. "Killing, is… so…"

"We aren't children any more," Satsuki said.

"...yeah, you're right."

Sakura walked slowly behind Satsuki, searching for words, until they came to a crossroads, and wordlessly, without even a pathetic goodbye, Sakura diverged paths.

"Sakura."

She turned, and Satsuki had walked no further, turning her head to the side to look at Sakura.

"Do you want to train with me?"

Sakura's mouth opened and closed like a fish, and she blinked.

"What- uh," she stuttered, "like, now?"

Satsuki raised an eyebrow.

Sakura wondered whether she'd heard her right.

"Uh- yeah! Sure! Uh… lead the way…"

* * *

"Oh, so this is where you train?"

The clearing wasn't perfectly spacious, but Sakura supposed that was a more realistic scenario anyway. She disguised a stumble over a tree root as a strangely-footed spin. Satsuki walked ahead of her.

"Free from distractions," Satsuki said, walking to the middle of the grounds. Her body morphed into something snakelike in its grace, and a shiver ran up Sakura's spine.

Satsuki met her eyes.

"Come at me."

Sakura hesitated for a moment, unsure in her words and her movements, until she remembered the weakness in thoughts like that (perhaps, in that moment, she'd be dead) and she ran at Satsuki fists flying.

With a single, well-timed push, Sakura was sent flying into the ground, chin first, and her eyes stung with tears.

"Try again."

Sakura stood up, running forward, only to be elbowed in the back and sent crumpling to her knees.

The humiliation came once, twice, thrice more, until Satsuki gave her a cold look that made Sakura feel like curling up on herself and disappearing.

"This was a mistake."

Sakura felt tears threatening to spill at the edges of her eyes. "What was?"

Satsuki looked down on her, turning on the balls of her feet, but with a cold, empty look over her shoulder before she did. "Trying to train a mediocre kunoichi like you."

_'Mediocre?'_

Sakura's heart fell to her feet.

_'Sure… I'm pretty weak and pathetic, but… am I really…?'_

Satsuki's feet padded softly on the grass, the sound becoming more distant with every step.

Sakura gritted her teeth.

"SHANNARO! _MEDIOCRE?!_ "

And for the life of her, Satsuki had not - not one bit! - expected the fist that came hurtling towards her jaw. So, really, no one could blame her when she dumbly let it hit her, and lay on the ground with spinning vision and a tang in her mouth.

And even with the taste of blood on her tongue, stars in her eyes, and a resounding ringing in her head, nothing could stop Satsuki from smiling at Sakura.

"You hit hard," Satsuki said, a smile curling the edges of her lips. "Let's go again."

* * *

The straight-down burn of midday sun beamed down on Naruto.

His knuckles stung from the grazes and splinters, a sticky half-pus half-blood mess stringing the gaps between his fingers. It was the result of what he'd called training, but what was closer to angrily punching a post.

Naruto arrived at the gates.

Although he'd promised himself and Mizuki he would not return here, he figured that the Chuunin exams qualified as a special occasion.

He found the grave, and knelt down gently.

_"Tohru Mizuki"_

The name stirred the noise of wheezing lungs, the feeling of clumped tissue resting on his lips, the strike of demonic lightning-

Naruto calmed his breath.

The chuunin exam entry forms lay below him, held down in the light breeze beneath his knees. Chuunin. The title that would bring him a step closer to Hokage, to better missions, to respect from the villagers.

To, supposedly, all that he'd ever wanted.

Naruto leaned forwards, resting his forehead on the top of the grave, his breath misting along the reflective stone.

The tuft of dandelions from so long ago had sprouted, from its seeds, tens of plants, all letting free waves of fluffy white in the gusts of wind.

The chuunin exam form pinned below his knees rustled in the breeze.

Naruto closed his eyes. The gravestone was cold on his forehead.

"Who is Orochimaru…?"

* * *

Satsuki awoke with a vision of tears fresh in her mind.

She checked the time - it was three o'clock - and settled back into sleep.

* * *

When she awoke handily at six in the morning, the image of Itachi's tears had imprinted themselves onto Satsuki's eyes.

She turned the light on, seeing the uncanny red of her Sharingan in uncomfortable clarity.

Those tears - wherever she looked, they followed her.

That image, pervading image, of Itachi, walking away, with that same Sharingan, the same blood-stained hands, all so similar, and yet-

(Had she seen this before?)

-the single, lone tear, that slipped down his cheek, was something Satsuki instinctively rejected.

She traced her image in that mirror, the soft curve of her jawline, so different from Itachi, those eyes, so different from Itachi, that dull black hair, so different from Itachi, because Satsuki was different from Itachi in every single way-

-he _couldn't_ have been crying-

Satsuki squeezed her eyes shut, attempting to will away her Sharingan and the burning image of lies that it lay on the inside of her eyelids.

(But-)

Her Sharingan wouldn't even deactivate - that was no good.

(But, what if-)

Satsuki's stomach convulsed at the unbidden thought. The idea of her brother crying, of the vile and disgusting man who she loath to share blood with, _daring_ to shed tears at the vicious slaughter he laid upon her - _their!_ \- family - the idea alone made Satsuki wretch.

(But, what if Itachi was-)

Murderer, S-rank missing nin, Uchiha Itachi - the man who would surely, _certainly_ die by her hands, was the furthest creature from regret and tears.

(But, what if Itachi was- maybe, just _maybe-_ )

Satsuki vomited.

(But what if Itachi _was_ innocent?)

Satsuki, bile dripping from her lips, slammed her hand into the bathroom mirror with colossal force. Tiny shards reigned on her bare feet, blood running in organised streams down the tiles of her bathroom.

Tears fell.

* * *

When Sakura and Naruto also turned up to hand in their forms for the Chuunin exams, Satsuki couldn't help but feel relieved.

"You think _you_ can become a chuunin?" Satsuki said, smirking at Naruto, and to her relief, the boy flared up like an agitated firecracker.

"Hell yeah I can! I'm not sure about _you_ , you bastard!"

"Come on, you two! This is an important time, you know!"

And even through the dull stinging of her palm from the morning, Satsuki felt immersed in familiarity.

_'This feeling… these two...'_

"Yeah, well, she started it! Bastard!"

"That's not even the right insult, you idiot!"

Satsuki tucked her hands in her pockets. _'They're… precious to me. And…'_

"What is the right insult for a bastard like her, anyways?!"

"You could just _not_ say anything!"

The painful image of Naruto's blank, dead expression sliced into her-

"You just don't get it. I… I don't care whether you asked…"

Satsuki clenched her fists.

_'...I can't lose anything that precious to me ever again. Itachi… you killed everyone I ever loved.'_

Satsuki closed her eyes, the faint and familiar bickering between Sakura and Naruto distant and warm.

' _And now, I'm unsure why you did what you did, but… it doesn't matter to me anymore.'_

"But Sakura-chan-!"

"Just _stop_ , you idiot! You're making a scene!"

"But you _just_ called me an idiot!"

"That's-! That's different, okay?!"

 _'Naruto… Sakura… they're too important to me. I won't let you_ _keep me isolated any longer. I will protect them, and that… that is a_ promise.'

"Naruto, Sakura," Satsuki said, and the two stilled.

"Eh?"

"Let's go," she said, smirking at the two of them. Naruto grinned widely back, and Sakura smiled brightly.

"Yeah!"

* * *

"Typical Konoha nin. Cowards."

"What did you just say?!"

Sakura planted a hand firmly onto Naruto's forearm, eye twitching but giving him a warning glance. "Naruto, they aren't worth a fight," she bit out through gritted teeth.

"Cowards?!" Naruto fumed, lunging forward in Sakura's grip. "I'll show them coward-!"

"You're from Suna," Satsuki said, stepping forward with a hand resting on her fans. "Who are you to call us cowards? I'd like to see you in a fight."

The boy smeared in face paint smirked. "Go ahead."

The room perked up, ninja peering over at those who'd managed to instantly start a fight. The air instantly became alive with rowdy mumbling.

"Temari. Kankurou."

The two Sand nin froze up.

"Gaara," Temari said, her words slipping from her lips as though she were shivering. "We were just-"

"Shut up, or I'll kill you after I kill these," the boy said, unmoving.

Satsuki was momentarily mesmerised by the swirling movement of sand.

"Naruto!"

The sand went from a harmless beauty to a condensed fist in a split second, clasping Naruto's throat and tightening, lifting him legs sprawling into the air as he clawed uselessly at the iron grip.

Sakura turned on Gaara, running for him with an expression of fury-

A solid mound of sand-come-rock slammed into her gut, sending her hurtling backwards into Satsuki and then sending the both of them hurtling through an empty table.

Temari turned to Gaara, an expression of worry ( _fear?_ ) twisting her features as she tried to reason with him. "Gaara, you know what father said-"

"WHAT AN UNYOUTHFUL DISPLAY!"

The flying green kick was one that Gaara's sand only just caught, the entirety of Gaara's sand pulling towards the point of collision. Naruto collapsed to the floor, Satsuki unpicking herself from the splintered wood to run to his heaving form.

"Naruto-!"

The boy donned in an adventurous green outfit held the attention of almost everyone, as he stared down Gaara without a single shred of fear. His fingers goaded Gaara forward, his expression unforgiving.

"I, Rock Lee, shall be your opponent."

"Sorry, but I don't think so," a booming voice said, tone dripping with sarcasm.

Everyone turned to see a man with a cut jaw and a grin made of sadistic intent.

"I'm Morino Ibiki, and I'll be your examiner for the written test."

* * *

The exam progressed with Naruto getting progressively more anxious with every question, Sakura getting more anxious with every time Naruto looked blankly at his paper, and Satsuki cheating shamelessly all throughout.

By the end, Naruto had decided to bank everything on the final question, and when it came, his heart shook his ribs like a taiko drum.

"Now, let me tell you about the rules unique to Question 10. The first one is… you may choose whether to do this question or not. But… should you choose not to, you get a score of 0. In other words, you and your teammates fail."

The room hummed with confused conversation, and anxious anticipation, until Ibiki spoke again.

"Let me finish. However, should you choose to receive the 10th question, and answer the question wrong…"

Satsuki's grip on her pencil tightened.

"...you will not be able to take the Chuunin exams ever again."

The uproar amongst the candidates was a dull rushing noise in Satsuki's head.

_'That sort of rule… is that even allowed…!?'_

Satsuki felt her heart pounding in her chest, and she looked to her teammates. Naruto's shoulders were shaking, his head looking to the desk, and Sakura was staring at him, hand tentatively reaching upwards-

"Hah."

Morino Ibiki gave Satsuki a skeptical look.

"The title of genin can't hold me back more than the title of chuunin can push me forward," Satsuki said, staring Ibiki in the eyes. "I'll become stronger no matter _what_ you say, so give up this charade and ask us the tenth question."

The room stilled, Sakura's hand lowering limply to the table, and Naruto turning around to look at her with an incredulous look in his eyes.

Ibiki raised an eyebrow.

The rapid flow of candidates out of the exam room stopped, and the panic simmered down to leave only an electric tension. Unsure gazes had become certain, hands folded and looking straight at Ibiki.

It was time.

"Well," Ibiki said, lip twitching with the beginnings of a smirk. "If that's the last of you, then…"

Team 7 simultaneously stiffened.

"Everyone in this room passes."


	10. Target

Satsuki couldn't help but feel slightly overwhelmed at the sheer height of the trees before her. They stretched far higher than anything in the village, and the wire walls alone made her uneasy with the warnings wired onto them. The canopy of the thick-trunked trees was so thick that it may as well have been a ceiling.

' _Forty-Fourth Training Ground'_

"Four," Naruto said, face dropping. "Too many fours… we're going to die…"

Satsuki rolled her eyes, and hit Naruto gently on the back of the head. "Shut up, idiot."

"Hmph! Don't tell me the name Forest of Death doesn't make you a _little_ scared!"

Sakura huffed. "You two had better not argue!" she said. "I won't be able to deal with five days of your bickering."

"Satsuki's just tryna be a hard-ass!" Naruto said, but it didn't take much to see that he was trying to reassure himself more than anyone else. "It does look scary, right, Sakura-chan?"

"I dunno about that…"

_'Sakura-chan too…?'_

"Well, uh, I was just testing you to see if you'd agree. Nothing about this is scary, not after that guy we had for the written test! He was scarier! I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I can take this!"

Naruto was a bad liar at best, but this was possibly some of his worst work. He wasn't good at going into his own bathroom at night, let alone a large forest filled with poisonous, over-sized, and carnivorous organisms.

"We've got a scroll of Earth," Satsuki said. "When we go in, we've got to get a scroll of Heaven as soon as possible."

Naruto waited for the true meat of Satsuki's plan to shine through.

"And then we run."

His stomach dropped.

"Is _that_ our plan?" he said, the hesitation in his voice showing.

"Do you have a better one, Naruto?" Sakura said warningly, folding her arms.

Naruto looked at the colossal trees, huge gates, and heard the worryingly loud tapping of a centipede's legs.

"Uh… no," he said. "Sounds good."

* * *

The three of them ran like there was a demon hot on their heels.

Although Sakura had been informed of the over-sized animals and worryingly high fatality rate in the Forest of Death, nothing prepared her for the sight of a skull peeking out from underneath the trunk of a tree.

Her breath quickened, her palms sweating, and Sakura swallowed nervously as they ran forward.

'Don't think about it. Gotta move, Sakura. Can't think. Move. Don't think. Move.'

They jumped from tree to tree, scroll safe in Satsuki's pocket, hands and feet and bodies pushing off with strength and energy from every branch they hit, until, after half an hour, Sakura spoke.

"If we carry on like this," she said, heaving for breath, "I'll be exhausted…"

Satsuki nodded. "Let's stop and plan for a moment."

Although they stopped in a small clearing to relax, Sakura was very aware of how on end Satsuki appeared to be; her eyes scanned the surroundings quickly, calculating before she spoke.

Naruto shrugged. "We haven't seen anyone yet," he said. "That's good, right?"

Neither of them responded immediately, with Satsuki looking anxious before she spoke. Her eyes flitted to the dark of the wood that light could not penetrate.

"We should make a password-" she began.

The ears of Team 7 prickled up.

"What's that...?" Sakura whispered, when with a mighty kick and dive, Naruto pushed her out of the way. Satsuki jumped backwards.

With a deafening crunch of branches, a colossal snake divided Team 7.

"I'll distract him!" Satsuki yelled over the hissing of the serpent. "You two get to higher ground! There might be enemies!"

Naruto's heart sank, and he yelled over his shoulder.

"You better get your ass back here soon, Satsuki!"

With that, Satsuki lured the snake - which even the mere image of made Naruto metaphorically quake in his boots - deeper in the forest.

* * *

"I'm back."

Satsuki's voice rang out through the forest, and Naruto and Sakura turned.

She emerged from the leaf canopy, dirty from a scuffle.

"Satsuki-san," Sakura said, smiling with relief. "Are you alright? You look a bit…"

"Nothing much," Satsuki said. "Just a bit of a challenge. So what's our next move?"

Naruto twitched, eyeing Satsuki suspiciously.

"Naruto-san?" Satsuki said, and the moment the honorific slipped past his lips, she knew her mistake.

She barely dodged the kunai that sailed toward her head.

"You little genin are far more… _intuitive_ than I thought," Satsuki said, and the way her voice was filled with slippery malice made Naruto's hair stand on end.

With a puff, the transformation faded, and left behind a woman with a wet grin.

"You," Naruto said, thinking hard. "Wait- you're the one who caught the kunai the examiner threw!"

"So sharp," she said, smiling unpleasantly. "My name is… Orochimaru."

Naruto's heart froze in his chest, and in spite of the fear that made his bones quiver, he hauled himself to his feet.

"Orochimaru," he breathed. "You! _You're_ Orochimaru!?"

Sakura whipped her head around to look at Naruto, eyes wide.

"Naruto, you _know_ this guy?!"

Naruto, with trembling knees and shaking hands, stood forward. Sakura stared at him, the sheer insanity that Naruto was even able to _stand_ before this man shaking her to the very core.

"Tohru Mizuki!" Naruto said, his voice a shaky yell. His tone was desperate. "You remember him, right?!"

Sakura's eyes widened, and Orochimaru's smirk widened behind his corpse white fingers.

"Oh, that one?" he said, cold yellow eyes vicious. "That weakling didn't even manage to make it to me. Failures like that are simply _worth_ _less_."

"Weakling?" Naruto whispered. "Failures?"

Sakura gritted her teeth, feeling the reality of the situation bearing down on her. Naruto couldn't shoot his mouth off, not now.

"Mizuki-sensei… Mizuki-sensei died for you! A weakling… a _failure…?!_ Mizuki-sensei wouldn't have failed to get to you if it wasn't for me! He stayed behind for _me!_ "

Orochimaru didn't do anything except allow a curl of the lip, and Sakura felt a heavy weight settle in her stomach at how his eyes traced Naruto's every move.

"And that he is why he is dead. That is _weak,_ " Orochimaru hissed. "Someone who allows themselves to be tied down by bonds can never ascend to true power."

Naruto was quiet, closing his eyes, and for a moment, Orochimaru thought the boy had cracked. He opened his eyes.

"You're wrong," Naruto said, his expression defiant. "You're wrong! Someone like Mizuki-sensei, with the courage to risk their life for my happiness, understands strength far more than someone like you!"

Orochimaru was quiet for a moment, before his lips curled upwards. To Sakura's silent horror, he began to cackle, hysteria rising before he began roaring with laughter.

"Kukuku… hehehehe... aha- a _hahaha!_ "

A wave of killing intent hit the two of them, and Naruto felt, instantaneously, what it felt like to die beneath an opponent far stronger than him.

Sakura vomited.

Orochimaru's laughing mellowed out to a low chuckle, and he moved towards them slowly, steps echoing through the quiet of the clearing.

Even through the overwhelming fear, Naruto had the sense to glare at him, stepping back with awkwardly stiff legs that refused to move.

"Hatred like yours," Orochimaru said, the 's' sliding past his lips like venom, "is just _ripe_ for the picking."

And with that, he lunged.

Naruto grabbed Sakura, jumping up to higher ground.

"Sakura-chan," he said urgently, grabbing her by the shoulders. "C'mon, we've gotta find Satsuki! We need to get past this guy!"

Sakura shook her head, shaking violently in Naruto's hold.

"Naruto, he's out of our league," she said, voice quivering. "We're already dead."

"Once you give up, _that's_ when you're already dead! Get it together! If you stand up now, we might just make it out of here alive!"

Sakura looked up at him - Naruto, dead last, telling her to get her shit together, and instantly, completely, knew that she had to stand up. She closed her eyes, taking a deep and shuddering breath.

' _SHANNARO! If I_ _got this damn far, I'm not gonna get taken out now!'_

Sakura pulled herself to her feet. "You're right," she said. "But we've got to hope Satsuki will manage alone. If we focusing on going after her, Orochimaru will just kill us from behind. If she's trusting us to manage here, then we've got to trust her, too."

"Uchiha Satsuki," Orochimaru said, the grating tone of his voice echoing from every tree. "The Uchiha with those blessed eyes…"

Naruto was seconds away from retaliating bitingly when Sakura slapped her hand firmly over his mouth. He gritted his teeth, desperately trying not to respond to the goading comment.

"I have a plan," she whispered. "So listen carefully."

* * *

"SHANNARO!"

Sakura came sprinting down the tree bark, and threw a kunai directly down.

Her running speed, along with the force of her throw and gravity, allowed her kunai to soar forward; Orochimaru was barely fast enough, a clump of his hair floating down to the branch as he jumped backwards.

"Is that boy too cowardly to even face me?" Orochimaru sneered, tongue snaking about his lips. "How pathetic. Meanwhile that Uchiha girl is fighting for her life… that, or she's already dead."

"Shut _up!_ "

And Naruto's leg came crashing down onto the branch where Orochimaru had stood milliseconds before.

He looked at Sakura, and she nodded.

Sakura ran to Orochimaru's left side, kunai wielded close to her body. The man lunged for her, and in an instant she was replaced with a log, coming for him further to the left. Orochimaru read her obvious movements as the kunai sliced through the air towards him-

and then abruptly her leg made strong contact with the back of Orochimaru's knee.

Satsuki's voice from their training rang in her head.

"Feign your movements. People may take you lightly because you're a girl, and they'll fall for it. Take advantage of that. Show them what you're _really_ made of."

Although the hit wasn't nearly the strongest Orochimaru had felt or even seen, it was surprising, unexpected, his balance shaking for a moment-

Sakura and Naruto jumped, and the branch blew up in a flurry of red.

They landed on the branch above, waiting for the explosive smoke to clear, and Naruto smiled at Sakura.

"Nice job," he said, and she nodded, breathing heavily more from adrenaline than the fight itself. The smoke cleared-

Naruto's shadow clones had done a fine job, planting explosive tags beneath the branch they had been stood on whilst Sakura distracted him. It had been nicely done, and Naruto had come along from the other direction, shepherding Orochimaru carefully, until Sakura's foot connected.

He couldn't say he was sure this man was dead - not with how _above_ them he seemed - but surely, even slightly, he'd be incapacitated-

"Ohoho…"

Naruto and Sakura's eyes widened at the sight that met them.

The man's flesh had been burned and melted altogether, but whereas Naruto had expected to see raw red skin, it was nothing like it; the flesh, like thin white paper, was singed and burned and was peeling away to reveal a fresh layer.

"You children are just so _interesting,_ " Orochimaru smirked, and with a flourish, he tore the rest of his face away.

Sakura shrieked, and in spite of a moment of intense fear, Naruto cried out.

In an imperfect unison, kunai rained down on Orochimaru.

The first kunai he met with deflected from his forehead protector, slicing a clear line through it, and the second he caught in his teeth. The third he caught between his little finger and ring finger, the fourth he deflected with the handle of the third; the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth passed by in such a flurry of delicate movement that even without words and without assault, the message became glaringly clear:

' _You cannot win.'_

And in the seconds at the end, with Orochimaru holding kunai on every limb, Naruto thought, for a brief moment, that an angel had come.

A beacon of bright, warm light came down, slowly and then faster and faster, approaching, and then consuming Orochimaru in a hellfire.

Even when it turned out to be a well-placed Katon jutsu shooting down some ninja wire, Naruto figured it was a saviour all the same.

"Yo," Satsuki said.

Naruto looked up at her, skin marred with dirt and hair stuck to his face.

"Yo," he grinned.

* * *

"Take the U formation," Satsuki said. "I'm going first. You know what to do."

Naruto winced, but bit his lip. "Dammit, Satsuki, I hope you know what you're doing."

"If you're the one who sent that snake after me," Satsuki said, walking forward and pulling out her fans from her belt, "then I'm sure you'll be glad to know that it suffered before I cut it into pieces."

"You Uchiha are so cocky," Orochimaru said, the smell of burning human flesh getting stronger as she neared him. Even his sclera were red and singed, and peeling away like crumbling paper.

Satsuki gritted her teeth.

"This is so very convenient," Orochimaru said, expression dark. "I came here for you, little Uchiha. But I think I may play around with you for a little while longer. You and your team are… far more interesting than I thought."

' _Specifically… that boy…'_

"Play around?" Naruto said angrily. "Stop talking shit like we didn't leave a mark on you! People like you just piss me off!"

Satsuki opened her fans wide, and affixed her fingers to their edges before diving forward.

Of all things Satsuki had to show for herself, her grace was the one thing that was unprecedented. Her ability to dance about every strong hit of the enemy, and even when hit, to direct damage elsewhere to make the collision non-lethal.

But as Satsuki leaned under a sweeping roundhouse kick, she felt herself faced with someone just as - no, more graceful than her; someone faster and stronger than her to boot.

Orochimaru leaned back to avoid the edge of her fan, kicking upwards with a force that would have broke her jaw had she not pushed the kick to the side with the edge of her right tessen fan. He sprang on his hands, no sooner standing than he was running towards her with eyes so intent and filled with evil she sank to her knees right there.

Naruto launched in from the left, kunai in hand, and when he tried to make contact, Orochimaru grabbed his fists and threw him to the side. In the opening he left, Satsuki slashed at Orochimaru's under arm with the tip of her fan.

And yet, together with Naruto, Satsuki was not just grace. Her and Naruto were two parts of the brawn required to make a man perfect; she was the everlasting dance, and he was the force, the punch behind a fist.

As Naruto landed on the side of a tree from Orochimaru's throw, he cursed.

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Hundreds of Kage Bunshin filled the trees around them, and Sakura looked at Naruto. They nodded in affirmation, and in the blur of orange, they disappeared.

But then, what was Naruto without Sakura? He was a force without direction, which was surely nothing at all.

Her whole life, Satsuki had been called 'genius' and 'prodigy' by her teachers, her peers, and her family. But as she watched Orochimaru's movements, swift and strong and perfect, she finally understood what those words really meant.

To take down classmates in a single move as a child was impressive.

To take on a hundred men with taijutsu alone was _insane._

Orochimaru's tongue wrapped around the neck of a Kage Bunshin, and he flung it against a crowd of orange. As they puffed out of existence, Orochimaru smirked.

"Kukuku," he snickered, eyeing Sakura's still form, expression contorted with strong thought until she eyed Orochimaru's murderous gaze. "Why would you leave yourself so _open_ , little girl?"

In a second that Satsuki couldn't possibly hope to keep up with, Orochimaru withdrew his sword, and extended it instantaneously to pierce through Sakura's throat.

The gruesome moment where Satsuki saw the gaping windpipe as it leaked with fresh blood was destroyed by the small puff of smoke as Sakura disappeared.

Orochimaru's eyes widened, and Naruto landed a punch on the man's jaw that sent him reeling.

Team 7 was like a machine; if they were to be a sword, Satsuki was the slice and Naruto was the swing and Sakura was the consciousness that had mind to move at all, and against an opponent with a careful and perfect balance of genius, grace and power, the three of them finally understood Kakashi's words.

Three ninja without teamwork were three ninja, but together they could be something else.

"Naruto-kun," he said, voice sending shivers up Satsuki's spine, "how you _surprise_ me."

The next punch Naruto threw was caught by a quick and unmistaken palm. Orochimaru ran for Satsuki.

Satsuki bent to avoid his punch, and jumped and spun to avoid his kick, skidding across the unsteady surface of the bark. He launched himself forwards again, the force of the punch that Satsuki misfired slamming into the trunk and sending down a soft rain of leaves.

Naruto came in from the right, throwing kunai that restricted Orochimaru's movement severely, leaving the man to block Satsuki's incoming fan with his forearm. Orochimaru leg hooked around the back of hers, closing on her knee with a force that made her bones groan under the pressure.

Orochimaru spied Naruto coming from his right, and with a painful force, jumped onto his hands, dragging Satsuki up with him, and propelling his legs forwards with a force that sent Satsuki careening into the trunk of the tree.

In a single moment, Orochimaru lunged forward, drawing his sword and heading for Satsuki. His mouth was curled up deviously.

' _Now… son of Minato, what will you do?'_

"Don't _touch_ her!"

Naruto's fist and self came hurtling towards Orochimaru, so fast, quick, bound to collide-

And then his world became a mass of metal clanging, ringing, and dizziness he could not escape, with Satsuki's scream resounding in between.

* * *

Sakura felt her hair stand on end and her body convulse as Satsuki's pained cry resounded through the trees.

The sword, with a sickening severing of muscle, slipped through her arm and pushed through the tree, and with the other hand, Orochimaru had extended his fist with a strong punch and hit Naruto straight in his forehead protector.

The collision had sent Naruto reeling, the force of his run and the force of Orochimaru's stasis throwing him off his feet and onto the branch below.

Sakura, feeling her heart ache as Orochimaru approached Naruto, ran for Satsuki.

"What a _foolish_ little boy," Orochimaru said. "The three of you… even combined, I didn't need a shred of ninjutsu. How weak... pathetic."

Naruto was dizzy and unbalanced, but pushed against the surface of the branch to pull himself further away. His eyes were unfocused from the resounding concussion.

Through the unrelenting pain of being pinned to a tree by her flesh, Satsuki screamed.

"Naruto! Get up, you _loser!_ "

Sakura bit her lip so hard a trail of blood leaked down her chin. "Satsuki-san, stay still! You'll bleed out!"

Satsuki reached out to Sakura with her remaining hand, and grabbed the girl by the collar. "Get the hell off _me_ and go save _him!_ "

Sakura's heart pounded in her ears. _'Satsuki-san - I'm sorry. I'm not as brave as you.'_

Orochimaru leaned down, face close with Naruto's.

"You say pretty things about protecting people," he said, "But in the end… you couldn't save anyone. Not even yourself."

Naruto's head reeled, trying to form words but spitting up blood instead.

" _Sakura!_ "

"If I go anywhere, you'll die," Sakura whispered. " _I'll_ die."

"Sakura-"

Sakura put her hands over her ears.

"I don't _want_ to die here!" Sakura screamed. "I'm not brave enough to go around saving people like you! I don't want to die here! I _don't!_ I'm not suicidal! If I try to save Naruto, I'll die, no-one will save you, and we'll _all_ die here!"

Satsuki spat in Sakura's face.

"You're pathetic, Sakura," Satsuki said, voice choking and face contorted with rage. "Naruto would do it for you."

She grabbed the sword by its flat edge, fingers trembling.

Orochimaru's lips brushed Naruto's ears.

"Get off me," Naruto said, voice raspy and the words barely making it past his lips.

Orochimaru laughed.

"Hatred like yours," Orochimaru said, sitting up and grinning widely, "I'd hoped that Satsuki-chan would have something like this for me… but you've just turned out to be so _promising_ , Naruto-kun. How could I resist?"

The Sword of Kusanagi clattered to the branch floor, and blood spilled anew onto the bark as Satsuki yanked the blade out of her arm and ran.

" _NARUTO!_ "

With that, Orochimaru's teeth sunk into Naruto's stomach, and his scream sent canopy leaves swaying down to the dark, invisible bottom of the forest floor.


	11. Resentment

Sakura undid the knot and released the pressure on the wound, and Satsuki hissed, expression tense with acute pain.

"I'm going to pull the last layer off now," Sakura said, looking up at her.

Satsuki nodded, her knuckles turning white.

Sakura peeled the fabric away, and the sight made her stomach turn. She had roughly and tightly wrapped the wound to staunch the blood flow whilst she tried to lay Naruto down, and now as she undid it she regretted her lack of attention. The wound had left a jagged fleshy outlook from where Satsuki had ripped the sword from her flesh. A thick gunge pushed through the chunks of tissue, platelets and blood mixing to make uncomfortable pink.

From what Sakura could tell, Orochimaru had not intended to kill her. Her arm did not appear broken, and the blood flow was under control.

Sakura looked up to Satsuki. The girl was biting her lip, tears pooling in her tightly closed eyes. She was shaking.

"I'm almost done," she said, slowly peeling away the bandage, and Satsuki gasped. It came off slowly, Satsuki's breathing heavy as the bandage finally peeled off of her skin.

Sakura reached into her bag, and brought out a small bottle.

"This'll sting," she said, and rubbed some alcohol from her pack on the wound. Satsuki visibly winced, but didn't say anything.

Sakura unrolled some fresh bandages on the wound, tight but not tight enough to stop blood flow to Satsuki's arm, and tied it roughly.

"Lie down," Sakura said, and she cleared a space behind the girl, trying to lie her down comfortably next to Naruto.

"Thank you," Satsuki said, delirious with pain.

Satsuki turned her head to Naruto. He was sweating, visibly shaking, eyebrows knotted as though deep in the throes of an argument.

Her expression tightened, and she closed her eyes tightly.

"Goddammit, Naruto," she said. "He'll be fine. He's Naruto. He could never be anything else."

Sakura nodded, diverting her gaze from Naruto's pained form.

"Of course," she said, biting her lip. "Naruto'll be fine."

* * *

"I won't sleep."

The wood was dark, night having settled a choking blanket of sky over Sakura that should have reminded her of the open night beyond; instead, the darkness enveloped her, every rustling leaf suspicious and every distant figure an enemy. The stronger fear than that was sleep, the sleep that pulled at her eyelids and clouded her senses.

Sakura dug her nails into her knees, the pain barely rousing her from an almost slumber. She looked to the side.

Naruto lay on one side, Satsuki on the other. Satsuki's arm was wrapped in bandages, fresh white material that she'd replaced just an hour ago stained with a deep red. Sakura was not keen to rewrap her arm; they had limited resources here, with no way to obtain more bandages without ransacking another team's supplies, and Sakura knew there was no chance of that.

And the pain. Sakura knew Satsuki to be stubborn, refusing to show emotion or weakness, but when she touched that arm, peeling fresh material from the skin, Satsuki bit her lip to stop from screaming and wept.

It shook Sakura.

"I won't sleep," she said, staring at Naruto's pained form. "I won't sleep."

He was no better, but there was something horribly, horribly eerie about it. Naruto was not gravely injured, or didn't appear so; all there was was a strange patterned seal on his stomach, three tomoe on top of a swirl, glowing bright as though it were red hot. And his expression was disturbed; as though trapped in a fitful nightmare.

Her voice quivered in her mantra.

"I won't sleep."

The underbrush rustled, and Sakura flinched.

A face of a man attached to the squirming body of a snake crept from the undergrowth and let a slick tongue trace its lips. Its voice sent shivers down Sakura's spine.

"Won't you, Sa-ku _-ra?_ "

She was awoken by her own cry of fear.

The night moved, and Sakura's heartbeat rang in her ears.

"Who's there?!"

* * *

The world was empty.

It wasn't. Naruto was in fact, surrounded by people; with faces contorted by prejudice and hatred. It felt the same as being alone. He would have preferred it.

But in the distance, he could make someone else out. Someone distinct from the vaguely similar and hateful faces.

"I hate it…"

Naruto blinked, looking to make out the figure.

It was him. A younger him, at that, in a top and shorts with his hands clutched to his face. Tears dripped down, and Naruto, even from this distance, could hear the hitch of his breathing as he cried.

The distance between them somehow grew smaller, and Naruto could see the younger boy with greater clarity.

"I hate it," the boy said again, voice a distraught whisper. "I hate being on my own."

Naruto tried to speak, but found himself voiceless.

The boy sank to his knees.

"What did I ever do?" the boy said, his tone rising with hysteria and distress. "I've never hurt anyone…!"

The hateful whispers around them grew, the insults and jibes barely recognisable, but the disgust in their tones clear. The boy scrubbed at his eyes with the back of his hands, and his tone grew quiet.

* * *

"Hand over your scroll," the girl said, voice cold and expression colder.

Sakura flinched, knees shaking as she stood before Naruto and Satsuki resting forms. The hand that held the kunai in front of her was trembling.

_'If I don't stand up here… then…!'_

"Are you deaf?" she said sneeringly, stepping forward with her hands outstretched. She spoke demandingly. "Hand over the scroll, you stupid girl."

Sakura, moving her head mere inches, looked at Satsuki's pained expression. Her voice rang out fresh in her head.

_'You hit hard. Let's go again.'_

Sakura dug the balls of her feet into the dirt, and smirked.

"Come get it, then, you bitch!"

* * *

"I've never had anyone," the boy said. "I've never had parents. I've never had friends. I've always been alone…"

In a near instant, the boy before him grew older, childhood fat thinning out to leave a thinner boy clad in an orange jumpsuit. His expression was bitter.

"I had nothing to do with the Kyuubi inside of me," he said, voice low. "I was hated for something that wasn't my fault. Labelled as the demon inside of me… wouldn't a real demon just… kill them all? A real demon wouldn't have let them isolate me all those years… a real demon wouldn't have let them do what they did to me."

The boy reached up to his jaw, and dug his nails into his flesh, peeling away the flesh of his jaw and then his lips to reveal a snake like tongue and grin as he smiled.

"Let's show them what a _real_ demon does."

Naruto stepped back, horrified and defiant. "D-Don't say shit like that with my face! I'd never think _anything_ like that! I've _never_ wanted to hurt the villagers for what they've done to me-!"

"Mizuki-sensei…"

Naruto stiffened.

"Mizuki-sensei was a traitor to your village… the very same village that killed him for trying to help you. The only man to ever care for you… it's hard to call him traitor, isn't it?"

Naruto's blood ran cold.

_'Who is this guy…?!'_

"I want to leave Konoha, I want revenge on the people who took Mizuki-sensei from me… I want to be powerful… I want people to fear me and respect me," the imposter before him said with a smirk of satisfaction on his lips. His tongue enunciated every word with a tone dripping with arrogant pride.

Naruto's lips trembled, stuttering angrily with words he couldn't even find. The boy before him chuckled darkly. "Those _are_ your true thoughts, aren't they…?"

"S-Shut up!" Naruto said, gritting his teeth and advancing upon the boy with fists clenched. "Lying like that, putting words in my mouth… you piss me off!"

Oddly, the closer he attempted to walk, the further the boy appeared.

"I know full well you aren't so disillusioned that you could ever truly lie to yourself. You may behind a smile of lies, but you _know_ I'm speaking the truth." The pseudo-Naruto smiled widely, with eyes that sparkled gleefully. "Naruto-kun… Orochimaru has a gift for us. Power."

"I don't want anything like that," he said, trembling. "I don't want power, and _especially_ not from you!"

"A traitor in the eyes of your village, and he was killed for his crimes," the boy continued. Naruto could only describe the tone as parasitic in its timbre. "But the tale doesn't go quite like that for you, now, does it? He could have escaped, but he lost his life begging you to come with him. He lost his life trying to bring you to a better life."

"Sh-Shut up! Those… that's _not_ what I-!"

"He was a traitor, certainly," the young boy said, slippery and smooth. "But can he ever be _just_ a traitor to you? He was the only one who told you the truth. The only one who tried to help you. Your only friend…"

"I have friends now," Naruto said, "I don't need power! I don't need anything like that! And especially not from scum like Orochimaru!"

The young boy before him laughed. The noise was sickening in its delirium and hysteria, before it simmered down to leave only a smirk.

"Oh," he said, voice sliding past Naruto's eardrums, "But he's _powerful_. Power takes, power gives, and power _reigns_. And power, as you'll soon learn, is a very, _very_ intoxicating thing… Naruto-kun."

* * *

Sakura moved her eyes to Rock Lee's unconscious form, and her chest tightened.

_'Even he… with that move, even he's down. What chance do I really have against these guys?'_

A forceful yank of her hair from behind sent waves of pain through Sakura's scalp, and she looked behind her with a snarl of anger to see the girl of the team with her hands firmly tangled in Sakura's hair and her face bearing an unkind smile.

"You seem so proud of this hair of yours," she sneered, ragging it closer to her. "A kunoichi shouldn't spend so much time on her looks."

_("Satsuki-san thinks long hair is pretty!")_

Sakura could see Naruto and Satsuki from where she was knelt, pained in their expressions.

_'God… all I've been doing all this time… just watching their back, or standing at the sidelines. Thinking, Satsuki is so strong! Or, maybe Naruto's not as much of an idiot as I'd thought… when I don't have the right to say anything until I stand up on my own.'_

"No wonder you're such a failure," Kin said, her laugh malicious, and Sakura closed her eyes.

' _Satsuki… Naruto… I'm sorry. I've been such a useless teammate up until now…'_

She reached into her pocket slowly, drawing out a kunai imperceptibly and strengthening her grip on its handle.

_'I won't just stand and watch your backs anymore…!'_

"Maybe," Sakura said, teeth gritted, "you should stop underestimating me!"

When Kin went flying backwards, hands filled with tresses of pink hair, Sakura felt that in the truest sense of the word, a weight had been lifted.

* * *

The clearing burst with blood red chakra, and the enemy and Sakura's allies alike flinched in fear.

Sakura became wide-eyed.

_'This chakra…! The intent to kill is so strong… who could this possibly...?!'_

"Sakura…"

The air stilled, and though Sakura recognised the voice well, her blood ran cold. Her head turned.

Naruto stood in the clearing, a red hot pattern of wave-like swirls stretching up the jutting shapes of his collarbone and encroaching onto his jaw, burning waves licking up to touch Naruto's unnatural grin. They turned black, as though cooled.

"Naruto," she whispered, knuckles whitening.

_'God… no, this can't be him! Not with chakra like this…!'_

"Sakura," he said again, and his voice was unmistakable. "Are you hurt?"

Sakura couldn't force words past her throat, and the whole clearing, enemy and ally alike, was still.

"He's alive," Zaku whispered, voice stricken with shock. "How the fuck did he…!?"

Naruto moved a step closer.

"Sakura," he said again, and his voice sent chills down Sakura's back. "You're hurt, aren't you?"

When he moved again, Sakura resisted the urge to up and run under his hungry regard.

Naruto looked her dead in the eyes, and her stomach turned.

"Who did this to you?"

His eyes were blood red, and slit like a feline.

"I did," sneered Zaku.

Naruto's regard snapped from Sakura's to Zaku's, and Sakura, for the smallest moment, felt an ounce of sympathy for the Sound ninja; because whatever look Zaku received, made him stop in his tracks and freeze in fear.

In a moment Sakura couldn't possibly hope to keep up with, Naruto was driving his knee into Zaku's gut and sending him careening into a tree back-first, then grabbing him by his collar and lashing him onto the ground.

Naruto pressed his foot into the centre of Zaku's ribs, and the boy coughed blood, scrabbling with his hands at Naruto's ankles frantically. His breath was heaving.

"You seem so proud of yourself," Naruto noted absent-mindedly. "Yelling about what you've done."

He reached down, grabbing Zaku's hands and pinning them above his head. As Naruto took his foot off his chest, Zaku heaved for breath, gasping in grateful gulps of air, before he screamed them out of his lungs seconds later as Naruto crushed his fingers with the very same foot.

Naruto reached down, smile unpleasant as he hooked two fingers onto Zaku's lower teeth and used his other hand to push against the top half of Zaku's mouth. The boy began writhing, screaming-

Zaku's jaw snapped, and his shriek of agony made Sakura choke back a scream of fear, squeezing her eyes shut.

"No way," she whispered to herself. "No _way_ is this Naruto...!"

Naruto turned to the young Sound ninja quivering against the trunk of a tree, and pinned her down with his gaze. "You're next."

Kin let out a small scream, scrambling to escape when Naruto grabbed her by both shoulders and slammed her against the bark.

Sakura watched, morbidly fascinated as she began to shake her head.

 _'That smile… that cruelty…'_ she thought, trembling, _'is nothing_ like _Naruto!'_

"Long hair," Naruto mused. "Funny, what happened to Sakura's?"

Kin was whimpering in his grip as Naruto grabbed a fistful of her hair, and she began crying out and begging.

"I didn't- _she_ did it! I didn't cut it off, I didn't do it, I _didn_ 't, oh god _please_ let go-"

Naruto laughed, and placed his foot on her shoulder.

"An eye for an eye."

He began to pull her by her hair, the roots ripping out clumps of skin and leaving fresh red blood to stream down her head in rivulets. Her scream pushed Sakura over the edge, and she stumbled to her feet with tears in her eyes.

_"Stop!"_

Sakura cracked him in the side of the jaw, and he tumbled to the ground, Kin scrambling from his grip to her teammate Dosu.

He turned towards her, with a shocked glint in his eye and blood on his lip, and she looked back at him with eyes filled with desperation.

"Please," she said, choking on her words. "Just _stop_ it!"

With unbidden relief, Sakura watched as the seal that had consumed him receded and disappeared like globules of red hot lava trailing down his neck. He fell to his knees, unmoving and blank in his stare.

The ninja Dosu looked at them both with an expression that told of fear, and lay down their scroll with shaking fingers. "Please… please take this scroll. Spare our lives, and you won't see us again. You're too strong."

Neither of them responded, and Dosu held Kin supportively, who was choking back screams of agony, and moved to open-mouthed, swinging-jawed Zaku, who was doing the same, and ran.

Naruto looked down to his orange jacket, dyed red in splashes, and his hands found his way to the wet patches. His fingers quivered against the blood-stained zip of his jacket.

"This blood," he said. "I'm not hurt anywhere."

Sakura fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around Naruto, burying her head in his shoulder and trembling with the onslaught of tears. Her breathing hitched, and she spoke in a whisper.

"I know."


	12. Oasis

Satsuki awoke to the overpowering stench of wildlife that masked the faintest scent of ramen. Her second intake of breath was stained with the scent of miso. She opened her eyes, blinking out the blurred vision and wincing at the bright orange fabric her face was currently buried in.

"You awake, bastard?"

She yawned, the tight knot of sleepiness strong and alluring in her chest. That was Naruto's voice, she noted, and then she realised her legs were in his arms, her arms slung over his shoulders. He was carrying her, and she frowned. "Usuratonkachi," she said. "I can walk."

"I'm not taking any chances with that wound of yours, Satsuki-san," Sakura intercepted from their right firmly. "The river isn't far now. See?"

Satsuki followed her pointing finger to a faintly glimmering strip of water in the distance, flashing amongst the moving trees.

"Provided there are no enemies there, we'll get you cleaned up, we'll fill up our canteens, and we'll get washed," Sakura said.

"Hell yeah!" Naruto said, and although Satsuki couldn't see his grin, she rolled her eyes anyway. "I'm so _-ooo_ thirsty, you know, Sakura-chan. I forgot to even fill up my canteen..."

"You're such an idiot, sometimes, Naruto," Sakura said, rolling her eyes. "Either way, we're nearly there, Satsuki-san." Her expression turned somewhat worrisome. "But you know what they say about water."

Naruto blinked. "...no?"

"That's where the animals gather to drink."

Satsuki could feel the shudder of Naruto's nervous gulp from on his back.

"L-Like, those animals? The huge ones!? _They're_ gonna be there-!?"

Satsuki slapped a hand to Naruto's mouth.

"Idiot," she said quietly, eyes flitting to the forest around them. "You're too loud."

"C'mon, we're here," Sakura said, landing on a branch, and Satsuki noticed Naruto's particularly long evaluation of the area before he dropped down to the grass besides the river. Satsuki climbed off his back with as much dignity as she could muster, which wasn't much.

"Y'know, I totally expected you to weigh like, a million tons," Naruto said, cracking his back. "But I could barely tell you were there. But that's probably just because I'm super strong."

Satsuki flicked him in the side of the head. "Hurry up."

Naruto huffed, rubbing his temple and walking to the side of the river. "Still a bastard."

They settled down for a moment, Sakura having already filled up her canteen and taken off her shoes. She stood in the river, and sighed happily, reaching down to cup her hands with the fresh water to drink and wash away the smudges of dirt and blood on her face.

Naruto caught himself staring at her happy smile, and quickly dragged his gaze away, undoing his jacket and taking off the top underneath. Satsuki eyed him cautiously.

"What are you doing?"

"Duh, I'm washing. I stink. So do you."

Satsuki blinked, before shrugging and reaching for the hem of her top.

"Stopstop _stop!_ "

They both looked up, to see Sakura looking horrified.

"Satsuki-san!" she said, eyes silently urging Satsuki, but the girl just raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

Sakura pointed at Naruto, looking at Satsuki as though she was meant to be in on something, but the Uchiha found herself yet still bewildered.

"Satsuki-san, he's a _guy!_ " she said.

Satsuki rolled her eyes.

"I was aware, Sakura."

"So... so what are you _doing?!_ You can't just get _undressed_ in front of a _guy!_ "

"Why?" Satsuki said. "I don't know if you've noticed Sakura, but you said we didn't have much time here."

Sakura looked back and forth from Satsuki and Naruto, her expression incredulous. "I... we're _girls!_ He's a _guy!_ " With an exasperated look, Sakura turned on Naruto with her arms folded and her expression stern. "Leave!"

"What?! But I haven't done anything! And I need to get-"

"You can get washed when we're done," Sakura said, her tone leaving no room for argument. "Now go. And no peeking!"

"But I-"

Sakura shot him a look, and Naruto turned and walked to the outskirts of the trees.

Satsuki rolled her eyes, and lifted her top off, kicking off her shoes and pulling off her shorts before climbing into the river. Sakura looked away, somewhat embarrassed at her own shyness, before pulling off her dress and the short leggings underneath.

Satsuki cleaned herself, unwrapping her chest to wash properly beneath, and Sakura noted that she was as flat-chested as ever, thin and elegant and slightly muscled.

"Sakura."

"Uh," Sakura said, blinking herself out of her stupor and blushing profusely. "U-Um, what?"

Satsuki hauled herself onto the riverbank, leaning over to douse her hair with fresh sparkling water and running her fingers through the thick black hair, she leaned up to look at Sakura.

"You're not a coward," she said, twisting water from her hair.

Sakura blinked, before leaning over to douse her hair in the water as well. It was shorter now, and the jagged ends brought back moments of horror. Satsuki's hair was much longer than hers, now.

"I am," Sakura said, scooping up handfuls of water to rub into her scalp. The water stung and soothed it simultaneously.

Satsuki looked at her with an unreadable expression as she stood up and climbed out of the river, grabbing her clothes. Sakura couldn't help but admire the sheen of her white flesh against the grime of the forest. "I'd say you're more of a leader," she said, pulling on her shorts.

She held a hand out to Sakura.

"So is that an apology then?" Sakura said, smiling cheekily.

Satsuki's eyebrow twitched.

The girl knee deep in the river smiled a little, taking Satsuki's outstretched hand before she decided to retract it and climbing onto the riverbank.

"Are you two _done_ yet?!"

"No! And you'd better not be peeking!"

* * *

Naruto ended up getting washed in the river whilst the other two planned; apparently it was acceptable for a boy to be in his shorts in front of girls, but not the other way around. Satsuki took note, and questioned Sakura, but her response was simply "Well, I mean, guys are _always_ topless, right?"

"So, we have both scrolls," Sakura said, patting her bag. "The last team we fought left us the Scroll of Heaven to match our Scroll of Earth."

Satsuki frowned.

"You did that on your own?" she asked. "Or was that when Naruto woke up?"

"I was going to die for sure before Naruto woke up," Sakura said, and her tone changed. "But I can't say for sure whether it was truly him that beat them..."

"What do you mean by that?" Satsuki said, her voice low and demanding, and Sakura held herself back from babbling nonsense as she might've done weeks ago.

"When he woke up, he was so much stronger than the Sound ninja," Sakura said, her voice shaking. "He tortured them for hurting me... and his body was covered with a horrible black pattern. He felt nothing like Naruto... he felt terrifying. They left us their scroll in return for mercy. At that point, I'd managed to calm him down, but..."

Satsuki's expression betrayed little, but her white knuckles and tense shoulders read of rage.

"That mark that Orochimaru left on his stomach..."

A fair few metres to their side, Naruto bathed, water washing away stains of blood to leave fresh healed skin behind. He scrubbed it from beneath his nails, and crusted away the dried flakes of it from his palms. The feeling of dirtiness never left him, but he took it upon himself to quickly wash his jacket. The bloodstains took a fair bit of rubbing and scratching to remove, but he'd rather the aching fingertips than Satsuki's searching gaze.

He rung out the material, and hung it on a nearby branch. Satsuki and Sakura's conversation was as distant as the world around them.

* * *

"Catch fish?! But we don't have anything to catch them with!"

"Improvise! That's how you became a ninja, right?"

Naruto physically recoiled from the comment.

"Well?"

"Sakura-chan... you're so mean..."

* * *

"The tower is just over there," Satsuki said. "We should be able to make it there by tomorrow at least."

"That's pretty fast," Sakura said. "Maybe there won't be many teams there... hopefully we won't get into a fight on the way."

"As long as we're quiet, there shouldn't be a problem."

"I'm going to take the first night shift," Sakura said. "Naruto?"

"I want the big fish," he blurted out, and the two looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"What?"

"The fish," he said, eyeing the three fish impaled over the flames. "I want the big one."

Sakura sighed.

* * *

Three sets of bones picked dry lay beside charred wood and stirring embers, curling ribcages still warm and chipped by keen teeth.

Sakura had been put to bed by a firm Satsuki, who had insisted on taking the first watch of the night, and Sakura had put up little of a fight and had passed out in seconds on her bed roll with her legs sprawled and hair in her mouth.

Naruto was lying down, close to the fire, fingers outstretched to the flames and eyes blank.

Satsuki had moved, legs crossed beside the fire, stoking the embers with a stick and a kunai hanging heavily on the fingers of her other hand.

"Sorry," Naruto said suddenly, and Satsuki turned to him. His eyes were focused on the centre of the flames, and his irises lit up with strong orange life.

His face was looking so much more weary recently. Although Satsuki liked to think that Naruto was invincible in his resilience, day by day his mortality was painted out to her in blood-stained letters; the mortality of his body and the mortality of his mind.

"For what?" she asked, and he closed his eyes and leaned back with a smile that read of a different boy.

"For letting you get hurt like that," he said. "It's my fault."

"Of course it's not," Satsuki snapped back at him, and he opened his eyes to look at her. She glared. "It's nothing to do with you. And I definitely don't need _you_ taking care of me. You can barely manage yourself."

Naruto looked at her. The fire crackled like twigs snapping underfoot.

"I suppose," he said with that same smile. "Maybe it's _your_ fault for being such a loser then."

"Like you can talk, dead last," she said dryly, and Naruto stuck his tongue out.

"Bastard," he said. He curled his index finger into the curve up to his thumb, peering through the tiny hole up to the stars peering through the canopy.

Satsuki couldn't help but looking up. The stars, distant from the light of the village, were bright and windingly dense with the stripes of cloudy white space. She wondered what Naruto saw.

He unwound his fingers, lifting his hand in front of his face and puppeting with the shadows. "Well then, it's your responsibility to not get hurt," he said. "So don't."

 _'Why can't Naruto just be Naruto? Why do I have to care that he's not all he appears?'_ she thought.

(Satsuki knew why. It had started the day he had overturned her expectations by tending to her houseplant, and the end was nowhere in sight.)

_'Why do I want to know about him so badly?'_

"What about you?" she said. "What's with that mark Orochimaru left on you?"

His fingers twitched, and froze in front of his face.

"It's fine."

Satsuki lifted the thick stick to stoke the fire. Scraps of ash flittered upwards and sizzled into dust.

 _'It's not. You always say that. It's not fine._ You're _not fine.'_

"It's _your_ responsibility to not get hurt," she said, looking at him intently, and he chuckled, the sound genuine and soothing in her ears. He leaned back, grinning cockily.

"Right. Or what?"

She snorted.

"I'll beat the shit out of you."

Naruto laughed loudly, and Satsuki smiled.

He stopped talking then, and fell asleep fast. The embers died out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's all I've to post at the moment. The next update will be coming soon.


	13. Hold

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the really long wait - but it's over! As is Naruto. It's been a long ride. So here's a long chapter to celebrate the end of the manga we all know and love. Special thanks to Zenthisoror on FFN for betaing this and helping me plot everything.

The return to the tower occurred without significant incident. It took them a minute or two to figure out the puzzle within, opening the scrolls and successfully completing the exam. Upon entering the tower, they entered a seated waiting area, filled with chairs, not so many genin and chuunin seated peacefully at desks in the corner.

Naruto lead the group, legs swinging and hands tucked behind his head. A chuunin with white hair pinned behind his ears appeared.

"Team 7 of Konoha, correct?" he asked, eyes directly on the clipboard. They nodded in affirmation. "Right. Do you have any significantly debilitating injuries to report?"

"Yeah!" Naruto said quickly, pulling Satsuki forward by her good arm. The man looked Satsuki up and down.

"Where?"

She pulled up her sleeve, revealing scuffed and bloodied bandages. "I was stabbed through the arm."

"Straight through?"

Satsuki nodded. The man grunted, adjusting his hair.

"Well," he said. "Just come over here for a moment."

She followed him over to the desks of chuunin in the corner, and Naruto smiled brightly at Sakura, motioning to a line of free seats. "Let's go here while we wait for her. See, Sakura-chan? Satsuki's arm is gonna be fine, and so are we!" He fell limply onto a chair, stretching out his limbs before exhaling deeply. "I'd say we got off pretty easy. They said a ton of genin die in there, right?"

Sakura smiled, her eyes wandering to his gut.

"I'm super tired," he said, yawning, before leaning back in his seat and slamming his feet on the table. "What time is it?"

She looked around warily. The bang had stirred the few genin in the hall slightly, but not much. The three genin from Suna, however, remained attentive, turning to look at them.

"Will you stop that?" Sakura hissed. "We've just got here, and you're already drawing attention!"

"Ah, it's Satsuki," Naruto said, her comment bouncing off of him. "Oi! Over here!"

Satsuki sat down next to Naruto, and with a small sigh Sakura seated herself too.

"Is your arm alright, Satsuki-san?" she asked. "No issues at all?"

Satsuki shook her head. "It's just sore."

The girl turned her attention to the genin in the hall, and narrowed her eyes at the three from Suna, who kept turning their heads.

"Those three are here too."

Sakura bit her lip, her eyes flitting from Satsuki's challenging gaze to their obstinate stares. "Kinda, uh, scary," she said. "Especially that Gaara guy, with those eyes."

Naruto folded his arms behind his head. "What, the one with the big black eyes? He looks like a panda or something."

Satsuki acknowledged Sakura giving Naruto a whack around the head from the corner of her eye, but kept her gaze firmly trained on the three other genin.

' _They keep turning to look at us. If it wouldn't be seen as a challenge, I'd activate my Sharingan to read their lips…'_

"They look strong."

Sakura looked over at them apprehensively. "Yeah," she said. "They're one of the first teams here, too… and they don't even look scuffed. We almost died…"

"Hey," Naruto whined, "didn't they say like, showers and stuff? And food? Because I want showers and food."

"We should probably ask the chuunin."

Naruto stood up, stretching his hands above his head and cracking his knuckles. "Alright! Let's go."

As they walked, Satsuki couldn't help but note that Gaara's gaze followed Naruto the entire way.

* * *

"Close your eyes!"

"Eh?! Why?! I'm not gonna look, I promise-"

"I _said_ ," Sakura said, "close your eyes! I'm a girl, you're a guy."

Grumbling under his breath, Naruto did, folding his arms with a sullen expression.

Sakura stepped out of the bathroom, uneven wet hair stuck to her jaw and neck, and a towel wrapped tightly around her. "Satsuki-san," she said, her smile warm and her cheeks red, "it's your turn!"

Satsuki moved to walk past her, towel in hand, when she stopped abruptly, looking at Sakura's hair.

Sakura itched the side of her face, looking anywhere but the other girl. "Uh… what is it?"

Satsuki looked at her a moment more before she continued past her.

"Shorter hair suits you."

Sakura turned around quickly, confused and clutching her towel tightly. "But I- don't you like- I always thought-"

There was a click as Satsuki closed the door.

Sakura blinked, before she felt a smile curl onto her lips, and she walked into the room with a stride.

Naruto intercepted quickly, eyes still squeezed shut. "Yeah, yeah! Sakura-chan, your hair looks super nice short!"

"Shut up," Sakura said. "And don't peek, you pervert!"

"I didn't!" Naruto whined. "Hurry up!"

Sakura rolled her eyes, peeling the towel from her form and pulling on her top.

"You have so little patience, you know."

* * *

The shower's water was hot. Satsuki tenderly rubbed at her arm, the water at her feet running pink. She turned around, leaning back to allow her hair to feel the full brunt of the hot water, and she ran her fingers through it, unpicking leaves and twigs. The dirt, sweat and blood that buried itself in every crevice of her body washed out slowly and refreshingly, and after using the supplied soap and shampoo, Satsuki rubbed at her face and turned off the water.

Climbing out, Satsuki dried herself off, before rubbing away the fog in the mirror to look at herself.

She grit her teeth.

What with breasts so small, and with her being so thin, her hair straight, wet and stuck to her skin - she was the spitting image of _that man_. She reached for her weapons bag, never removing her eyes from her boyish form, her wet fingers wrapping firmly about a kunai. Satsuki pulled a strand of her hair taut with one hand and with the other-

There was a loud slap.

"What's your problem?! Don't just get _naked_ in front of me like that!"

"Why's it- I was just trying to get changed!"

"It's disgusting! I don't want to see you naked!"

"I wasn't _naked!_ "

Satsuki rolled her eyes, and caught herself smirking in the mirror. The hair slipped from her wet fingers.

She slipped the kunai back into her pack. _'I don't look much like him at all.'_

* * *

Sakura yawned.

"We should go to bed soon," she said, fixing her hair in the mirror. "How many beds are in here?"

"There's a couple of futons, and a pile of blankets and stuff," Naruto said. "Dibs on the one by the radiator."

"No," Satsuki said. "I'm lying there."

"What?"

Sakura eyed Satsuki from the corner of her vision. ' _Satsuki-san is really good at making it sound like she's got a solid reason for everything…'_ Her eyebrow twitched. _'But…'_

"Because I'm cold."

Naruto stepped towards Satsuki, gritting his teeth angrily and pointing an accusatory finger at her. "You bastard, we're all cold! This room is really draughty!"

' _Damn right, Naruto!'_

"A shame," Satsuki said, tucking herself up under the blanket of the furthermost futon, facing the radiator. Naruto launched himself over to her, grabbing her by the shoulder.

"Move!"

"No."

After a moment more of Naruto jabbing his index finger into Satsuki's side, he growled before grabbing a fistful of her hair and pulling, and in a split-second Satsuki's hand shot from under the blanket and grabbed a fistful of his. In seconds they were face to face, scowling.

Sakura sighed, climbing in under the covers and snuggling in as close as she could get to the radiator. Her contact with Naruto was strange, but she was so cold her mind didn't dwell on it. She smiled, nudging in closer. _'Ah… he's so warm!'_

"Let go, moron."

Naruto's face moved in closer. "Not until you let go of mine!"

"Let go first."

"No!"

Satsuki rolled her eyes before closing them. "Fine."

Her grip on his hair tightened, and Naruto winced. "F-Fine! I'll just hold onto your hair forever then!"

"Is someone going to turn off the lights?" Sakura asked.

When neither of them responded, she huffed, before deciding getting up to turn them off was too much of a pain and she was tired enough to fall asleep either way.

* * *

"Rookie Team 7 of Konoha, please."

A man with dark hair swept to one side of his head smirked at Kakashi, rifling through a very thick file. "You don't have to tell me twice, Kakashi-senpai. It's quite the tale that you passed a team." His words faded into a snicker. "Poor bastards."

Kakashi flicked over another page. "I wouldn't quite say that, Yomi-kun," he said. "But they're an interesting bunch."

"So I hear. A two-girl team, as well. I haven't seen one of those in a while." His finger trailed down a long list of applicants, many with heavy black marker crossed over their names. "So how are they coming along?"

There was a pause. "Interestingly."

Yomi snickered. "Well, that doesn't sound promising."

Kakashi sighed, turning yet another page. "They're all exceptionally skilled," he said, "and exceptionally flawed. With proper teamwork, they could be the best ninja this village has ever seen."

"Provided you don't fuck them over yourself," Yomi said, before laughing. "That's a pretty big boast to make, but I guess everything about you is a little extreme, isn't it, Kakashi-senpai?"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Now what exactly do you mean by that?"

Yomi waved off the comment with his free hand. "Kidding, kidding. But that's all provided you earn their respect… let's just hope no-one tells them about that one time with the chickens and Uchiha Fugaku."

Kakashi's finger froze as he moved to turn the page.

"Yes," he said. "Let's hope."

Yomi flicked through two more pages, before finally looking up to smile at Kakashi. "There we go. They're in room 64," Yomi said, passing him a key. "You know, Kakashi, there're already too many genin filtering through… they reckon we might have to hold preliminary matches. And no helping them too much! You're here on special permissions."

Kakashi tucked the key into his pocket, waving over his shoulder carelessly. "Of course, of course."

It had gone unsaid, but Kakashi knew that Orochimaru's appearance in the forest was hardly secret now. And what with the Uchiha prodigy on his team, his pupils would be primary targets. The knowledge that they were even alive had come as news that let him release a held breath.

' _I'll have to ask them about any suspicious encounters.'_

He reached the door, sliding the key into the metal lock and turning. The door slid open, the light was on-

"Yo-"

He was met with the three of them, bundled up by the radiator; Naruto's arm was slung over Satsuki, Satsuki's arm over Naruto, and Sakura was squidged up tightly in the mass of blankets.

Their faces were the image of contentment.

He blinked, before letting a small smile creep onto his lips.

' _And here's me thinking they mightn't get along…'_

Kakashi flicked off the light switch, before closing the door quietly behind him.

'… _I guess it can wait until_ _tomorrow.'_

* * *

Naruto awoke from his sleep to the sound of booming thunder.

Sakura, beside him, shrieked, and Satsuki, to the other side of him, gracefully launched herself up and smacked her head into the radiator.

"S-Sensei!" Sakura said, clasping her chest and trying to calm her breathing. "What the hell was all _that_ about?!"

"Kakashi-sensei?!" Naruto sputtered between gasps for breath.

Satsuki said nothing, rubbing at her head with a scowl that demanded explanation.

Kakashi shrugged in response, casting away his genjutsu, whipping out his favourite book and becoming quickly engrossed. "You were all sleeping when I got here, so…"

After a moment's pause, he coughed. "Aside from a congratulations on getting through to the third stage, I have some questions to ask you three about what exactly happened in the Forest of Death. And I also have some information for you."

The three of them stared back at him sleepily and angrily. Kakashi held up a bag, smiling.

"I also have breakfast."

Grumbling slightly, the genin peeled themselves from their futons and stretched, sitting at the small table. Sakura had her head in her arms, and Satsuki too looked as though she was barely awake. Naruto was, debatably, still asleep.

Kakashi placed down the bag on the table. "There have been several incidents in the Forest of Death-"

It took him a moment to realise that his students were entirely not listening, rooting in the bag. Naruto took a sudden deep breath, and breathed out with a smile.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto said, grin wide. "That smell… how did you know?!"

Kakashi smiled. "Yes. Since our Team 7 introduction was all about your favourite foods, and seeing as you've all managed to come this far in the chuunin exams…"

Sakura withdrew a large box, opening it to reveal assorted dango and sauce, whereas Satsuki to her left pulled out a paper bag of large, fresh tomatoes. Naruto drew out a take-out bowl of ramen, and with a barely suppressed squeal, began to unwrap it.

"Before you have those, though," Kakashi said, "I have some proper food." He withdrew boxed lunches, and Satsuki and Sakura took them, muttering thanks.

"Wait for me, ramen," Naruto said mournfully, taking the box from Kakashi.

The genin began eating.

"I'm going to have to ask you a few questions," Kakashi said.

The three of them nodded, and Kakashi closed his book.

"The first - and most important - is… did you encounter anyone you'd consider strange in the Forest of Death?"

A cold air settled in the room, and the three genin froze. Kakashi's stomach turned.

Sakura, onigiri in hand, put it into her boxed lunch before looking to her teammates for confirmation. She began with a stutter.

"S-Strange?"

Kakashi nodded. "Strange."

Sakura opened her mouth to speak, but stuttered again, looking to Naruto and Satsuki. Naruto's fists clenched.

"Hell yeah we did!" he said. "There was this guy with snakes and shit! He was obviously not a genin, and he has this tongue, oh man it was fucking _weird-_ "

Sakura's gaze flitted nervously. "And… and he left a mark on Naruto."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed.

' _I hope that's not what it sounds like.'_ "A mark?"

Satsuki interrupted. "He bit Naruto on the stomach." Her hands were shaking.

"And he was in so much pain, he was _screaming,_ " Sakura said, "he slept for so long, like a _day_ or something, he was so sick. And when he woke up… he wasn't himself. He was covered in black marks, and…"

Kakashi noted Naruto's confident and fiery gaze turn away from him.

Sakura took a deep breath, and her voice was considerably quieter. "Naruto… Naruto protected me. But he didn't just protect me… he- he _tortured_ them. It wasn't… it wasn't anything _like_ Naruto! There was this horrible chakra, and…"

Kakashi could see tears welling in her eyes, and he tucked his book away. "Still up to the same old tricks I see, Orochimaru…" he muttered.

His team was visibly shaken. Kakashi knew personally that Orochimaru had the capability to do that to grown jounin. Rookie genin had no chance of turning out unscathed.

' _But my question is… why didn't he go for Satsuki?'_ Kakashi thought. _'She must have been his original target in these exams. But I can't imagine the horrors that Orochimaru would commit with a Kyuubi…'_

Kakashi straightened up. "Naruto," he said. "Come with me. We're going to do something about that seal."

Naruto's ashamed expression lightened into a relieved one. "Really?" he said. "Wait- what about my ramen?"

Kakashi started heading for the door. "If you can eat and walk, bring it with you."

Naruto stuck his tongue out, grabbing the take-out bowl from the table and walking after him. "Sure I can!"

Kakashi stopped short of the door, turning to Satsuki and Sakura. "Stay here," he said. "Eat up and prepare. If we make good time, we should be back in an hour or so. I'll tell you more about what I think the third exam might be then."

Satsuki and Sakura nodded, and Kakashi exited with a wave.

The moment the door clicked, a shriek resounded.

"Hothothothot-!"

"I said _if_ you can eat and walk. But obviously…"

The voices faded away into incoherent echoes.

Satsuki looked at her food, the whole thing somehow unappetising now.

"Has your arm healed well?" Sakura asked.

"It's still sore," Satsuki said, "but I can move it normally."

Sakura paused, rubbing her shoulder with one hand.

"I see…"

Satsuki couldn't help but note how Sakura shook, how her lip was tightly bitten between her teeth. She opened her mouth, closed it, and then tried again.

"Sakura," she said, the words struggling past her lips, "Are you alright?"

Satsuki found herself hugged tightly by the girl, her wet eyes pressed into her shoulder as she sobbed. It was uncomfortable, but Satsuki put her arms around the girl and waited.

* * *

"Can't you write any faster?"

"Of course I can," Kakashi said, sliding a brush carefully over white paper. "I could go faster, do it wrong, and blow a hole in your stomach or poison you. In fact, it's more appealing with every minute."

Naruto shifted, grumbling under his breath. "Fine, whatever. I was just saying." He paused. "So who exactly is this Orochimaru guy?"

Kakashi didn't hesitate when he said, "Absolute trash."

"Huh?"

Kakashi dipped his brush in ink once again. "One of Konoha's legendary Sannin, Kage-like in skill, strength, and mind. Orochimaru in particular was a genius."

"Konoha's? But…"

"But he had an insatiable thirst for knowledge," Kakashi said. "He sought out immortality. In Konoha's underground, he ran experiments on animals, which quickly became humans. Babies, prostitutes, orphans…"

"Stop, stop," Naruto said quickly, a wave of nausea passing over him. He shook his head in an attempt to rid himself of the image. "That's… horrible. So he got caught?"

"Yes. And exiled, naturally," Kakashi said. "To think, he was in the running to be Hokage. It just goes to show evil can look like you or me. And once again… he's crawled right in beneath our noses, and he's wreaking havoc."

The room fell quiet with the slick-dry noise of calligraphy.

"So he's pretty dangerous."

"You couldn't imagine," Kakashi said. He was reaching the end of a line. "Actually, this seal he left on you, has been left similarly on your examiner, Mitarashi Anko." His wrist turned gracefully. "I believe the survival rate is 1 in 10, so congratulations!"

Naruto paled.

"And we're done!" Kakashi said cheerfully, standing up and dusting himself off. "Now sit still. It might hurt."

"What the-"

* * *

"We're home!"

Sakura had little time to turn her head before Naruto had launched himself onto the pile of blankets on the futon.

"Ack- get _off_ me, you moron!"

"Eeeh? Satsuki, is that you? No wonder the blankets felt so bony…"

"Get _off!_ "

"Okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry-!"

Kakashi whistled to catch their attention.

"Alright, you two," he said. "Listen up."

The two stopped fighting, looking somewhat ruffled as they stood up. Kakashi clapped his hands together and looked pleased.

"Now. I suspect the upcoming exam may be a set of one-on-one matches," he said. "If all goes well, you will be released late tomorrow and have a long break to prepare for them."

Naruto laughed gleefully. "So all I have to do is beat Satsuki in a final, or something? Hehe! Easy win!"

"If you don't fall over your own feet and knock yourself out first," Satsuki said, and Naruto shook a fist at her, opening his mouth but closing it at Kakashi's raised eyebrow.

"If you two are quite finished," Kakashi said. "Now… those matches will be pre-determined. A couple of things to be aware of… killing is not advised, but not prohibited. You might be hesitant to kill another candidate, but they won't necessarily hesitate as well. Remember that."

Sakura gulped. _'Whaaaat?! Is that what kids from other villages are like?! I'd never do such a thing…!'_

"Another point you brought up, Naruto," he said. "Winning doesn't mean you'll become a chuunin. Someone who loses may gain the title, and someone who wins may not. Basically… this is more about showing what you can do than trying to get the opponent down. That's your goal, too, though, because if you lose you mightn't get enough opportunity to show what you can do."

"But it seems like a bit too many genin are passing through the Forest this year, so chances are there will be a set of preliminary matches to narrow it down. They'll be late tomorrow, so all you can really do until then is use this chance to rest and recuperate."

"And finally," he said, "Naruto. That seal I've put on you holds back the full might of the Cursed Seal. But it will only hold it back as much as you want it to." Kakashi stare was a serious one. "If your will to resist falters, it will take hold."

Naruto nodded, his hand shaking with the tightness of his grip.

"Now," Kakashi said. "Who wants to play cards?"

* * *

"…"

Naruto eyed Satsuki like prey.

"…fold."

Sakura watched as Naruto slid his cards over to Kakashi, and sighed mournfully. "Eeeeh?" she said. "Satsuki-san is so good at this game…"

Kakashi pushed the pile at the centre of the table toward Satsuki's rapidly growing stack of chips. Naruto's and Sakura's piles were quickly dwindling.

"It's because her eyes are scary," Naruto muttered, pulling the two cards Kakashi sent his way toward him.

"You would say that," Satsuki said. "Having not won a single round."

Naruto slammed his fist on the table, the piles of chips shaking precariously. "Shut up! Just you wait. I'll beat you at this one!"

Satsuki rolled her eyes, lifting her cards to look before placing them back. Naruto growled, leaning over and pointing an accusatory finger.

"See? _See?!_ No matter what she really has, her face doesn't change from the standard cocky bastard expression! She doesn't _have_ to bluff! That's her automatic face!"

Kakashi eyed Satsuki with a small smile. _'Naruto is right, but the worst was playing against Itachi… of all the Uchiha, he had the scariest poker face. And he was a shameless cheater, too.'_

"Just because I don't wear my heart on my sleeve like some."

Naruto growled, standing up and slamming both hands on the table. "I don't know what that means, but I know it was meant to insult me, you prick!"

Satsuki rose similarly, scowling at Naruto.

"Come on you two," Sakura said, standing up between them. "I'm getting kinda sick of this…"

"You think you're so much better than me, huh?!" Naruto said, grabbing Satsuki's collar and yanking it towards him. "Well, let's go!"

Satsuki smirked cockily, pulling him by his collar as well. "I could take you on with one hand."

Sakura's eyebrow twitched, and she gritted her teeth, grabbing them both by the back of their collars and shoving them apart. " _Shannaro!_ Sit the fuck down, _both_ of you!"

There was a loud buzz, a click, and the room was plunged into darkness. There was a bang, the sound of the table hitting the floor, and a chorus of tapping as chips flew from the table and onto the floor. Someone screamed.

"What the-"

"A chip hit me in my eye, dammit! Who knocked over the damn table-!"

There was a brief silence, filled only with the sound of rattling chips.

"It appears there has been a power outage," Kakashi added helpfully, scaring Sakura with his proximity to her. She could see nothing, which wasn't helped by the fact that a chip had hit her in the eye.

"Naruto…" Satsuki growled.

Naruto laughed awkwardly. "Uh, what?"

"…did you scream?"

"No!" Naruto said quickly. "That must have been Sakura-chan-"

"Nope."

Naruto's tone turned begging. "Kakashi-sensei?"

"I'm afraid not."

"…"

"I don't like the dark, okay?" Naruto snapped. "I said it!"

"I didn't know boys could scream that high," Sakura said.

Satsuki snorted. "You're such a baby."

"Do you think you can get away with saying that just because it's dark?!" Naruto said, reaching out to grab Satsuki's collar but instead firmly pulling Sakura's nose.

" _Naruto-!_ "

"Calm down, all of you," Kakashi said, grinning playfully beneath his mask. "It's just a power outage. You'd think there'd been a murder in the dark, you know?"

"D-Don't say that, Kakashi-sensei!"

Satsuki rolled her eyes. "How old are you?"

A knocking resounded throughout the room, and the three genin froze.

"Oh god," Naruto whispered. "It's the murderer. We're going to die."

"Shut up, moron."

"Come in!" Kakashi's tone was cheerful.

The door swung open.

"Uh, hello?" Naruto squeaked. "Hello? Oh god, spare me. I'm not even a chuunin yet."

There was a pause, and then a cough.

"Security here," a low voice rumbled. "We just came to tell you that the power outage isn't anything to worry about, but it might be out until the morning. Thanks for your understanding!"

"Anytime!" Kakashi called back. The door clicked shut again, and he saw Sakura swing for Naruto's head, only to miss entirely. Her stumble was badly disguised.

"Naruto, you are such a baby! How are we ever going to get promoted when you're scared of the dark?!"

"I'm not _scared_ of the dark!" Naruto said, sputtering indignantly. "Besides, Satsuki and Kakashi-sensei are acting all cool, when they probably have their Sharingan on or something! Right?!"

"No."

Naruto blinked. "Well, w-whatever! I can so deal with the dark. All night!"

There was a silence, before Sakura giggled.

"…let's tell ghost stories."

"Huuuuh?" Naruto said. _'Is Sakura-chan into that kind of stuff…?'_

Sakura grinned, rubbing her hands together. "Yeah! If you wanna prove that you aren't scared of the dark, even one _tiny_ bit, then let's tell ghost stories!"

Naruto wasn't sure whether all eyes were actually on him, but it certainly felt like it.

"H-Hell yeah!"

"..."

"I think I have one about an empty house...?" Sakura offered weakly.

There was a moment's silence, and then a sigh.

"I have one."

Naruto turned his head to the direction of Satsuki's voice. "Eh? You? Telling ghost stories?"

"Just one," she said. _'My brother would often tell it to me on request, but in the end, I'd keep him up all night for fear of demons...'_

"Okay! Well, tell us that one. We'll get comfortable, first." Sakura turned to Kakashi, or where his voice had come from last. "Are you staying, Kakashi-sensei?"

"I think I'll take my leave," Kakashi said. "It's rather late. But I'll see you all tomorrow morning… don't stay up too late."

"I'll sleep like a log, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto declared. "No ghost story will keep me up."

"If you say so, Naruto," Kakashi said. "Sleep well, you three."

There was a chorus of goodbyes as the door clicked shut. Naruto shivered from a breeze, and they settled down clumsily on the futons, tugging a blanket between them. When Satsuki began speaking, her words bled through the darkness.

"Below Fire Country, lies a cluster of islands cloaked in deep mist. In a particular patch of the ocean, abnormal heat under the water causes massive whirlpools. The tiny nation surrounded by these was a village called Uzushiogakure," Satsuki said. "But these shinobi were renowned for their powerful chakra and longevity, and so the village, and its people, were destroyed."

"I thought the academy history lessons were over," Naruto groaned. Sakura batted him around the head and shushed him before smiling encouragingly through the dark at Satsuki, though she doubted the girl could see.

"It's said, however, that the island holds a dark secret in its history of bloodshed. When reports that an invasion of massive proportions was coming reached the village, Uzushiogakure still had little chance of survival. They were doomed for destruction.

"But it is said that, to preserve their ancient techniques, the adults of that village, after sending the children away on the last of their boats, gathered together and decided that the Awakage, the strongest shinobi of that village, should be the one to survive and pass on their legacy; and so in his skull, was sealed their consciousnesses.

"But this was too much for the Awakage. In his ears rang the whispering of hundreds of dead men and women. Seek revenge! Why should you be the one to survive? Wouldn't you be better off dead? Kill them! Kill them all!

"It is said that when these invaders arrived, they were faced with what they could only describe as a Red Demon. He tore himself from the underbrush, the bracken of roses leaving bright red scratches in his flesh, mad from the chanting of a thousand souls, and with hair like a bloody red spider."

"The entire invading force was found dead, their necks purple, and their eyes red from burst vessels as they'd strained for their last breaths. The only clue to their deaths lay around a single ninja's neck…"

Naruto sat agitated in the silence.

"What? What?! What is it?!" Naruto urged, leaning over.

Sakura's breath was bated, but the silence went on. She blinked.

"S-Satsuki-san, don't tell me you mean to leave it there! We're Team 7! Don't you _care_ about us?!"

"...a single, tightly wound, red hair.

"No-one knows what happened to the Red Demon, and the island is abandoned, with the waters hard to navigate and a thick fog that clouds the island from view. Uzushiogakure is still empty today, and search parties report nothing. But some say that in the watery depths of that water lies a tomb, and in it, immortalised, the Red Demon, locked in an almost eternal sleep. But at just the right moment, he will awaken…"

Her eyes began glowing a bright red.

"...in the dark of night time, in your sleep, he'll wind his long red hair around your neck-"

"Stopstop _stop!_ Stop that _right now,_ " Naruto said, shaking his head with his hands over his ears. "That is _not_ funny! And turn off your Sharingan, you bastard, you _scared_ me!"

"Who's idea was it to tell scary stories?" Sakura said, her voice cutting through a long silence.

"Yours."

Sakura blinked. "Wh-Oh, yeah..."

Naruto groaned, letting his head fall into a pillow. His voice was muffled. "Sakura-chan… you're so mean," he said. "I'm not gonna sleep a wink…"

"Satsuki-san told the story! And you said you weren't even scared of them!"

"Hey, hey, Satsuki," Naruto said, a note of fear in his voice, "is it a true story?"

Satsuki leant back onto her blankets. _'_ _I would always beg him to tell me that story. And now, the Red Demon, avenging those he lost… reminds me of myself.'_

"There's no way," Sakura said, rolling her eyes at Naruto. "It's just a kid's tale."

"No," Satsuki said. "It's true."

The two of them blinked, and Sakura opened her mouth before Satsuki spoke.

"A member of our clan was supposedly sent afterwards," Satsuki said. "To investigate why trade had stopped."

"All of it?" Sakura said, disbelieving.

Satsuki opened her mouth. "My brother-"

' _-wouldn't lie.'_

She closed it, abruptly turning away from them with a twisting feeling in her gut. The two didn't press the matter when she stopped.

"Well… it's been blown out of proportion, right?" Naruto said, his tone giggling and panicky. "Ack, I wish the lights weren't still out…"

"We should go to bed," Sakura said, and Satsuki to her right agreed.

They curled up beneath the blankets, slightly more spaced apart this time. As Satsuki moved to make herself comfortable, Naruto poked her in her side. She frowned.

"You know," he said, "you're like, really good at storytelling, Satsuki."

Satsuki blinked once, twice, before her cheeks flushed pink in the darkness.

"…shut up. Something as stupid as that isn't a talent."

"Whatever," Naruto said. Satsuki could hear him smiling.

' _That's it, isn't it?'_ Satsuki thought, her face still hot. _'When I get all embarrassed like this… when I look at Naruto…'_

His eyes were closed, but his hands knotted in the blankets.

' _I'm reminded so strongly of family that it hurts.'_

There was a long moment.

"I can't sleep," Naruto said, his voice a whine.

Satsuki took in a breath quietly, breathing out through her nose and blinking back tears. Her voice shook. "Try harder, idiot."

There was another long silence, and then a whisper. "Is Sakura-chan asleep?"

A loud snore came from her side. Satsuki inconspicuously rubbed the wetness from her face with the blanket.

"Satsuki?"

"What?"

"I've got something to show you. C'mon, get up!"

" _Now?_ "

"No, c'mon. It's like, urgent."

"Naruto, it's-"

"-time to go!" Naruto hooked her by her arm and pulled her upwards.

"Be careful of Sakura," she scolded, creeping past the sleeping girl.

"Yeah, yeah I know."

They opened and closed the door gently, Naruto pulling Satsuki along all the while.

Satsuki rubbed her arms, bristling at the cold outside of their heated room. "This had better be important."

Naruto shot her a smile that she could just about see. "It is! Promise." He grabbed her by the arm and pulled.

"Oi-! Be careful!"

Naruto's hands fumbled along the walls until he found a sign that, upon leaning forward earnestly to read, depicted stairs and various room numbers. "Ah, c'mon."

"Where are we going?"

"Up a couple more stairs, I think-"

Naruto tripped roughly, Satsuki catching him by the arm. She gave him a glare, her eyebrow twitching as he regained his balance.

"The fact that you're meant to be a shinobi is just embarrassing."

Naruto stuck out his tongue.

"Yeah, well- you too, prick," he said. When met with no more stairs, he stood at the top, looking both ways and seeming to be contemplating a decision. Satsuki folded her arms.

"Now what?"

"We find more stairs."

Satsuki looked at him, her face stoic with a hint of mild exasperation. Naruto either didn't notice or ignored it, fumbling along the walls with his hands and squinted eyes.

"Here… here? Oi, Satsuki what does this door say?"

Her Sharingan burst into a flower of red in her eye. "No entry."

Naruto grinned. "Exactly the one we want."

Satsuki did a double take when she saw Naruto withdraw bent pieces of metal and tuck them inside of the keyhole of the lock. His fingers moved them delicately.

"The hell are you doing?"

Naruto didn't even turn to look at her. "What does it look like, bastard?"

There was a loud clink, and Satsuki heard a victorious 'yes' from Naruto's mouth before the door swung open. She blinked.

"The security here is terrible."

"A lot of places are like that," Naruto said. "And besides. I'd be more bothered about all the genin killing each other."

Satsuki rolled her eyes, but followed him up the stairwell. It was narrower and the air was thick with dirt and dust, and at the top was a small metal ladder which smelled strongly of ferrous rust. Naruto stepped on its bottom step and thrust his hand upwards to open the trapdoor with a bang. Moonlight poured down on them like liquid silver.

As Naruto climbed up, Satsuki caught sight of the night sky above, and lost her breath. In the midst of forest, far away from even Konoha, her Sharingan ablaze, the stars were unlike anything she had ever seen, the cold white of moonlight painting even the peeling paint of the walls as crashing white waves.

She climbed up, raising an eyebrow at Naruto.

"So, what? This was urgent?"

He shrugged. "Not sure about that. I just had a feeling it would be really nice out here," he said, smiling into the distance. "And it is, right? The whole town must be in a blackout, because all I can see for miles and miles is the moonlight."

Satsuki looked around, before moving to sit down beside Naruto. She shivered.

"Are you cold? Take my jacket," he said, already unzipping it. "I'm too hot, y'know!"

"I don't _want_ your jacket."

"I don't care!" he said, pulling it off and throwing it at her. "Put it on!"

Satsuki rolled her eyes, but conceded, putting the jacket around her shoulders. It was warm, orange, and smelled strongly of home.

"You are such an idiot," she said, a smile tugging at her lips. "Dragging me out here for something like this."

Naruto grinned, rubbing the back of his head. In the moonlight, all Satsuki could see was the soft glint of his eyes, and the side of his head cast in cold light. The sight of Naruto, the night sky and trees as far as the eye could see was a sight that stole Satsuki's breath. Her heart hammered in her chest.

"Well," he said, "it's pretty. And the trees look nice, too, you know? We mightn't ever get a chance to see the Forest of Death like this again!"

"Usuratonkachi."

Naruto grinned at her, a smile that took up his face in dimples, teeth and sunshine amongst stars. "You don't need a reason for everything, you know!"

Satsuki's eyes paused on Naruto's face for a moment, before she leaned back onto her hands and looked at the stars.

' _That's true,'_ Naruto thought, staring at her for an unassailable moment, _'But I guess I brought you up here, because in the end, even though you really do piss me off…'_

Naruto could feel his smile slipping.

'… _hearing you cry like that is just unbearable.'_

"Naruto. Look."

He followed Satsuki's gaze to the sky and was met with a flickering pinprick of gold, that moved slowly before speeding quickly across the sky and disappearing. The incision it made across the night made Naruto think the sky would split into two.

"A shooting star!" he breathed excitedly.

Satsuki was mesmerised.

"So, did you make a wish?!"

"A wish?"

"A wish, a wish!" Naruto urged, tugging at her sleeve with a grin. "C'mon, Satsuki! It's probably not too late!"

Satsuki turned from his excited expression, snorting. "You're such a child."

Naruto leaned forward, indignant. " _Whaaat?_ But Satsuki, it's a shooting star! A once in a lifetime thing, you know?!"

"What difference does it make?"

Naruto gaped in his outrage.

' _Well,'_ Satsuki thought, smirking slightly at Naruto's angry stutters, _'I suppose if I were to make a wish…'_

"Shooting stars are sacred! Don't you _get_ it?! If you don't make a wish, then-"

"Then what?"

"Something _bad_ will happen! I _know_ it!"

'… _the two of us, staying like this forever... wouldn't be so bad.'_


	14. Faith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a triple update. Forgot about this, uploaded it a couple of days ago on FFN. Sorry.

The morning passed with little event, the three of them leaving quietly after stretching and collecting their things. The hall was cold and uncomfortable compared to the huddle of blankets beside the radiator. A man with a persistent cough explained the rules in a drawling monotone, before there was a loud series of beeps, and then two names.

"Uzumaki Naruto," he said, "versus Hyuuga Neji."

Naruto blinked. "Eh? Who?"

Kakashi frowned beneath his mask. _'Hyuuga Neji… one of Gai's students. Top graduating rookie of last year. Naruto may struggle.'_

"Hyuuga," Satsuki muttered to herself.

"Heheh!" Naruto grinned. "This should be no problem!"

"A word of advice," Kakashi said. "The Hyuuga rely on close combat, so don't get caught too close."

Naruto's expression faltered for a moment. "Yeah, yeah, whatever, Kakashi-sensei."

' _Naruto's going to regret this…'_

"If you lose here, you're never going to be on my level," Satsuki said, eyeing Naruto cockily out of the corner of her eye.

"Hmph-! Just you _wait,_ okay?! I'm gonna beat your ass one day!"

"But not now," Kakashi added, putting an encouraging hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Good luck, Naruto," Sakura said.

Naruto smiled, a blush on his cheeks. "Sakura-chan!"

He turned to the crowd, holding onto the railing and leaning over to look for whoever was heading down before spotting a boy with long hair and eyes milky white. "Eh- is that him?"

Satsuki frowned. "Those eyes…"

"Almost as scary as yours, Satsuki," Naruto said. Satsuki flicked him in the side of the head.

"Just shut up and get down there before you get disqualified."

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto muttered, halting himself over the railing and landing with a thud on his feet. The boy was in the centre of the arena, weight on one leg with his arms folded.

Satsuki scowled. _'He's not taking it seriously at all… but this guy looks seriously out of his league. Especially with a bloodline. Naruto's going to have to be careful-'_

"Oi! White eyes! What're you standing around for?! Get on with it!"

' _-never mind.'_

The boy snorted. "The proctor hasn't initiated the match yet," he said. "Well, they do say the empty can rattles the most."

Naruto blinked. "Wait, what?"

Neji opened his eyes and smirked. "What I mean is, losers like you who talk big are the ones who have the least to offer. In other words, you're a weakling." He finally moved his arms and legs from that pose, shifting them into a strange one with palms facing forward. "I'll be done with you in a matter of seconds."

Naruto stared for a moment, jaw gaping, and his expression switching from pure indignation to unbridled anger. His fists clenched, and he snapped his gaze to the proctor.

"Get on with the announcing!" Naruto said, cracking his knuckles. "I've gotta teach this prick a lesson!"

The proctor looked at them. "Ehem. Yes…"

Naruto pushed back his shoulders and put a leg forward.

"Begin."

He launched himself forward, dust gusting past his feet.

"Get here, you bastard-!" Naruto yelled, cocking back a fist.

"As you wish."

With a smirk, Neji pushed aside Naruto's punch by the wrist and slammed a palm into his exposed shoulder, sending Naruto careening backwards off balance. Ducking beneath Naruto's arms, he drew back another arm to push a chakra-infused palm into Naruto's gut.

Naruto wretched, eyes straining and mouth tasting distinctly of blood as he fell forward.

Neji pulled back and drew his leg up before slamming it down onto Naruto's back. The crack, which Naruto identified as a rib, was audible.

He looked up to see Neji through a blurry double-vision, standing back and admiring his handiwork.

"As I said. A matter of seconds." Neji turned to the proctor, sounding bored. "May it end here?"

"Dammit. You prick…"

Naruto pushed himself up, leaning on his legs before staggering to both legs. His rib left a stinging, sharp pain in his chest.

"Still standing," Neji said, tone either speculative or interested.

Naruto winced. _'Damn, that was stupid. Kakashi-sensei told me not to go for close-combat, and I still ran in straight for it. I'm paying for it now, though… he pissed me off too easily.'_

"You know, you remind me of my cousin Hinata," he said. "Wasn't she in your graduating class?"

"Huh? Hinata?" Naruto said, blinking. "What about her?"

"Nothing," he said. "She was just a failure that refused to accept her fate. Learn from her example, and stay down. It's easier that way."

Without a moment more to spare, Neji sprinted in, hands outstretched, and Naruto quickly threw himself to the side, his reaction slowed somewhat by the sting of pain in his chest. The fluorescent blue of Neji's palm rushed from his left, and he jumped backwards, barely dodging a hit as he put some considerable distance between the two of them. Naruto frowned.

' _His hands… he's not hitting me hard, but those hits… there's something special about it. It must be his bloodline… I've gotta stay out of the way of that.'_

"Hinata was always nice to me," Naruto said. "And she was never a failure! I hate people like you - people who are always trying to tell me what I can and can't do! I can see it in the way you look at me!"

Naruto gritted his teeth, firming his stance and making a handsign.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Neji frowned at the clones encircling him. "Kage Bunshin?"

With a cacophony of battle cries, the clones converged on Neji.

The boy reacted immediately, his body curling like a leaf at the edges to move to the left. He bent past the assault of one clone, grabbing him by the arm and spinning his momentum into another. One by one, he finished off the clones, each movement calculated perfectly, before at the perfect moment, his surroundings enshrouded in the smoke of dispelled clones-

"Take this!"

-Naruto and a couple of his clones threw a barrage of kunai at Neji's back.

As the smoke cleared, his heart sank.

On each finger lay a kunai, all caught cleanly through the ring at their bases. Neji gave him a look that made his blood boil.

"A shame," he said.

Naruto clenched his fists, gritting his teeth.

Sakura turned to Kakashi. "How did Neji see all of those so perfectly? There was smoke, and he was facing the other way!"

"The Byakugan," Kakashi said. "That boys dojutsu allows him almost 360 degree vision. There's no possibility of sneak attacks."

"Almost," Satsuki said. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the smile that twitched at the edge of her lips. "Naruto can do it."

"As you can see," Neji smirked, "I have the perfect vision. There's no way you can get an attack past me."

' _Man… this guy… just who the hell does he think he is?!'_

"Cocky bastards like you just piss me off…!" Naruto yelled, feeling a brief stirring in his stomach like ice. He felt his blood like fire and ice altogether and the disgusting lick of Orochimaru's chakra welling in his gut.

' _The Kyuubi's power doesn't compare to mine,'_ Orochimaru drawled, deep in the recesses of his mind. _'And when they come together...'_

Naruto bit his lip, clenching his fists and keeping his gaze firmly locked on Neji.

' _I'll use an inch of this power,'_ Naruto thought. _'Just this once… to teach this bastard a lesson.'_

Naruto advanced on Neji with a speed the Hyuuga hadn't seen once in this whole fight.

Neji pulled to his right, stunned by the single-second turn around, but Naruto caught him out by changing his direction and roundhousing him in his spin.

The boy was flung back, catching his balance after the blow. Naruto intercepted.

Naruto, who had at some point become three - grabbed him by his collar and kneed him in the jaw, the other kicking him by his gut straight into the air - and the third, at a speed he'd hardly seen, jumped into the air, grabbed him by his hair, and slammed him front-first into the ground.

There was the scraping of debris and the settling of dust, before a coughing filled the arena. Neji, arms trembling, was pulling himself up from the mess of cracked tiles and dust, bleeding from the mouth with a scowl.

The blond grinned, breathing heavily. He could feel the last bits of that cursed chakra flitering away.

"You haven't won yet," Neji hissed, spitting blood, before launching himself up and dispelling the clone on his back in the blink of an eye.

Naruto's rib troubled him for one vital moment, and he was locked into Neji's hits.

' _I didn't even see him-!'_

Naruto didn't have to see the boy to feel his fingers press into point after point after point until it was countless pains all over his body that he couldn't see nor counter.

Satsuki rushed to the railing.

"What the hell is going on, Kakashi?"

"The sixty four palms," Kakashi said, eyes wide. "A main branch only technique…"

Sakura's expression turned worried. "Sixty four palms? What's that?"

"A technique that can cut off all chakra. And if this kid hits the one above the heart…"

Kakashi's expression hardened.

"Naruto could die."

Sakura gasped, clasping her hands to her mouth.

"Sixty four palms!"

The final hit launched Naruto backwards with a mighty buzzing smack. His landing was quiet, then marred with loud, wet coughing.

Neji's hands were red, perhaps with Naruto's blood or his own; his chin was stained too, and he was breathing heavily, his stance wobbling. His smirk remained.

"You see," he said, "Fate is an unchangeable thing. There's no possibility of someone like you changing it… you are a failure, as my cousin Hinata is… and I am a prodigy, as that Uchiha girl is. Those who are born to succeed… succeed."

Naruto's arms trembled with the effort to push himself up, before his elbows gave in and he hit the floor again with a grunt.

Satsuki gritted her teeth.

"Is Naruto going to lose?" Sakura said. "If he doesn't give up now… and that other guy tries to finish him off, then…!"

Kakashi didn't respond, and Satsuki clenched her hands on the metal of the railing, before calling out.

"Oi."

Naruto turned his head to look at Satsuki, and she pinned him with a glare.

"Pick up your game, you loser!"

The coughing turned into a wretching for a moment, before Naruto cleared his throat. There was a scraping noise, as Naruto pulled his knee to his chest, putting his weight on his right leg. It collapsed from beneath him, sending him falling to the floor again. His body shook from exhaustion.

"I don't need you telling me what to do, Satsuki," Naruto said, voice hoarse. "So keep quiet and let me finish this…!"

He could feel the cracked rib pushing at his flesh.

' _My chakra…'_

His eyes widened.

' _I can't… my chakra is…'_

Neji laughed breathlessly. "I disabled your tenketsu," he said. "You won't be able to summon any chakra at all."

Naruto glared defiantly, desperately trying to summon up more-

' _Do you require my power?'_

The tone made Naruto sick, and for a moment, he thought of the awesome speed and power leant by the tiniest fraction of that chakra, until he remembered the flickers of fear in Sakura's eyes.

"No," he whispered. "I don't want any more of that disgusting power of yours…"

Neji's tone was smug.

"Won't you stand down?"

There was a heavy silence.

"If we clash again, I will win," Neji said again.

Naruto gritted his teeth, turning his head to look up at the Hyuuga. The boy stepped towards Naruto, the footsteps echoing. There was an exhaustion in his posture; he was just as tired as Naruto.

"You are just so full of _shit,_ " Naruto bit out, his body screaming with each movement he tried to make. "What the hell would _you_ know about fate?"

Neji's stare hardened. "And what would you know about me, Uzumaki Naruto?"

Naruto chuckled.

"Quite frankly, absolutely jack shit."

His body trembled with his efforts to move.

"But I know what it's like to be a loser. I worked my ass off… every single _day…_ and someone like you comes up and tells me that it's my fate to never succeed?"

Naruto felt his wrists wobbling as he tried to push himself upwards.

"No matter _how_ long I train, no matter _how_ much I try, I can _never_ be anything at all?"

Neji didn't respond, and Naruto felt himself tense with frustration. "Hinata always worked hard too! Prodigies like you get a nice easy shortcut… even if Hinata is a loser, I respect her!"

His wrists collapsed beneath him, and he cried out with the pain. Naruto could feel Neji's piteous gaze on him, and it pained him more than any wound. He gritted his teeth.

"Geniuses like you will never know how… how humiliating it is to _be_ this way! And the courage it takes to stand up again…!"

The Hyuuga was silent for a moment.

"But nothing changes," he murmured.

Neji's tone rose up a notch.

"No matter how noble you think yourself, the reality remains the same!"

Naruto scowled.

"Relying on being a genius might get you this far, but if you keep leaving it all to fate, you'll never improve. Take credit for what you've done… take credit for your mistakes… and work hard…! I've lived by that…!"

"And yet you're grovelling at my feet. What does that say to you?"

Naruto looked up at him with eyes defiant.

"I may be a loser, but I'm not a coward who blames it all on fate. Hinata may not be as good as you, but she is sure as hell trying!"

"That's what you don't _get_ ," Neji snapped. "Trying just isn't _good_ enough!"

Naruto's lip twitched.

"I've had enough shit from people like you," Naruto hissed, and drew out a kunai from under his chest with a painful yank of his arm, and plunged it down.

"So just cut it _out!_ "

The blade went straight through Neji's foot and into the floor.

The boy roared with the pain, lurching down to grab Naruto. He rolled painfully away from Neji's grab, pulling at the boy's ankle and sending him crashing down to the ground. The blade awkwardly came out of the floor at an angle and twisted in the wound.

Neji's head slammed down not a foot away from his.

With not a moment to spare, the blond swung back his right fist and slugged him in the jaw, pushing off the ground with a creak of his bones and leaning over Neji to hold him by the collar.

His breathing was heavy, and Neji was shaking from the pain and exhaustion. Naruto smiled through his pained gasps.

"I won't give up," he said, "and I won't go back on my word. That's my ninja way. So stop asking, asshole."

There was a deafening silence, Sakura's hand over her mouth, Satsuki wide-eyed, and then-

"Uzumaki Naruto wins."


	15. Unfaith

After being briefly patched up, Naruto ascended the stairs with a limp, sore and worn out. Sakura smiled, clapping excitedly.

"Naruto! You did it!" she said. "You know, for a moment. I just didn't think you'd manage it, but then…!"

"You were alright, usuratonkachi."

"Gee, _thanks_ , you prick."

"Now, now, children…"

* * *

The proctor coughed, and the computer whirred for a couple stalling moments, before it came to rest on two fated names. The proctor spoke, but Naruto did not hear him. The screen read:

_Sabaku no Gaara vs Hyuuga Hinata_

There was the brief buzzing of conversation that Naruto could barely make out, and then he looked to his right, and saw Hinata, meek and quiet and everything soft, walking towards the stairs. He all but ran to her.

Hinata turned her head, cheeks flushing at the sight of Naruto's gentle smile.

"A-Ah! Naruto-kun," she stuttered. "I-I, um…"

Her index fingers tapped together as her gaze shifted to various points on the floor. Her cheeks were a bright red.

"T-Thank you for standing up for me," she said. "I-I…"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head with a smile. "It's alright, you know? Your cousin is an asshole, but I was just telling him the truth!"

She smiled, cheeks flushed.

"T-Thank you, Naruto-kun."

"Anyway," he said, "what I really came to tell you was that, well…"

' _Please, God, don't go down there. He'll kill you. He'll rip you to shreds in seconds. He's a maniac. A psycho. A murderer. Hinata, please, for me, don't.'_

Naruto gave her a bright white smile, and a thumbs up.

"You can do it!"

The girl stepped back, blinking, before she smiled and nodded fervently, a renewed strength in her tone.

"Y-Yes! Thank you!"

As Hinata turned to make her way down to the stadium in little elegant steps to the red-haired demon below, Satsuki glanced at the white-knuckled, quivering fists at Naruto's side.

His eyes followed Hinata until the very last step.

* * *

Gaara's flitting gaze was unsettling. Naruto could see it trailing after Hinata, and somehow the swirling of sand about Gaara's back reminded him of the impatient tapping of a foot.

(Naruto did know those eyes.)

"Commence."

(Perhaps that was why he was so scared for her.)

Gaara did not move, and Hinata waited for a moment, in a defensive stance, before springing out of it to run forward with hands alight-

Gaara's sand snapped forward like a serpent and clasped her by the throat.

Her gargle resounded as it tightened, before it bent, swung, and released her to send her flying into the wall. Her back cracked on contact with the wall, and she peeled away from the concrete and fell to her knees, spitting blood.

Wiping her mouth and steadying her shaky knees to stand, Hinata narrowed her eyes, took a deep breath, and ran to the left. The sand was on her tail immediately, before it returned to float around Gaara.

 _'Protection,'_ she observed. _'He uses it mainly as protection...'_

She began to move again, slower, withdrawing shuriken from her pouch and launching them at Gaara. They hit his sand shield - something she'd expected - but she watched as they were sucked into the sand itself, before being spat back at a barely visible speed. Hinata barely made the dodge, a shuriken nicking her shoulder.

In the moment of pain afterwards, Gaara's sand was above her, coming downwards before she changed her fall forwards into a speedy roll out of the way. It crashed into the spot where she had been and cracked the floor tiles.

Hinata shuddered.

She stood up properly, a kunai held in an ice-pick stance, when the rippling dome that swayed around Gaara let loose a mass of sand shuriken. Hinata quickly dodged the majority but had to slice through one with a kunai. ' _It's tough,'_ she thought, ' _but not impossible to break through. At least, these aren't.'_

As she ran along the perimeter of the wall, Gaara still situated at the centre, he sent more sand shuriken, cornering her like a lamb with careful throws. Hinata activated her Byakugan.

 _'They're reinforced with chakra,'_ Hinata thought as she dodged and parried hits, _'that explains why they're so hard to break through...'_

The practice soon became exhausting, and Hinata altered the range for a moment, moving forward and then quickly back. _'This distance is less risky, but I have to get up close.'_

Hinata rolled beneath another barrage of sand shuriken, jumping when they collapsed and coalesced on the floor into a hand that attempted to grab at her foot. She began to advance, running towards him and quickly dodging a wave of sand that moved to envelop her.

Gaara looked at her, bored, and the sand swirling forwards offensively to her drew back to encircle his form. She frowned.

"How boring."

He closed his eyes, and Hinata smiled slightly.

_'This is my chance!'_

She pushed her right palm forward -

Only to be met with the sand once again. Hinata blinked, stepping back.

"His sand moves independently of what he can see?"

The wall of sand formed a spike just beyond her fingers, and shot out abruptly. Hinata leaned back, the spike skimming her arm and leaving a long, shallow cut. The opening was obvious, and the sand grabbed her by the arm and lashed her to the other side of the arena.

Hinata's back slammed against the wall, and she saw stars.

 _'He's playing with me,'_ she realised. _'He could have easily killed me with that hit.'_

She stood up, gasping at the pain and activating her Byakugan once again, and stopping.

Where she had struck Gaara's sand, there was a small pile of sand on the floor. She could see that - compared to the rest of the sand - it had almost no chakra in it. Viewing it for a moment, Hinata saw it glow in the view of the Byakugan.

 _'The chakra is what moves the sand,'_ she realised. _'And if that's the case...'_

Gaara opened his eyes, and a swarm of sand shuriken headed straight for her still form.

' _I might just be able to win.'_

"One palm!"

She contacted a chakra-infused palm with the bullet. It shuddered to a stop, paused, before drifting down to the ground in a softly sifting pile of sand.

Gaara's eyes narrowed, the incoming bullets returning to the cloud around him. She allowed herself a victorious twitch of the lips.

But even now, she could see the chakra leaking to the sand bullet she'd left as a pile on the floor. Hinata knew she was at a disadvantage. She didn't have the advantage of anatomical knowledge, nor did she have the advantage of speed. There could be no breaks in either of those palm strikes.

And she had only hope that the chakra regenerated at a pace slow enough for her to secure a safe win.

Hinata settled herself into the stance of the gentle fist, palms forward, when she rushed to Gaara.

 _'The chakra is gathering,'_ she realised, before swallowing dryly and diving to her side. It wasn't fast enough. _'No… it's going to-!'_

Hinata was reminded of the difference in speed alone as Gaara's sand abruptly separated, grabbing her from behind and gaining a tight grip on her chest.

She gasped, momentarily winded, before she brought both palms to the binding and nullified the chakra in the sand, sliding out of its grip as it sifted onto the floor.

Hinata kept her eyes locked on Gaara; he was staring at her.

"You're slow," he said. "And weak. You are almost certain to lose."

Hinata gritted her teeth.

"So why do you continue to fight?"

Her heart stuttered in her chest. With Naruto's eyes on her, she was terrified, and yet when she spoke, she spoke with more conviction than she'd ever had in her life.

"B-Because giving up now," she said, "would be going back on everything I've ever resolved to believe! I-I won't give up, and I won't go back on my word! That's my ninja way!"

Gaara's sand rippled ominously about his form.

"Foolish words that I've heard before."

Hinata watched as Gaara's gourd crumbled into sand as well, joining the cloud. She bit her lip.

"It's not foolish," she said. "I-If I didn't stand up for what I b-believe in, then-then I wouldnt be a n-ninja w-worthy of respect!"

"Respect?"

Gaara grinned.

"Y-Yes! I…" Hinata took a deep breath. "I want to b-be a ninja worthy of N-N-Naruto-kun's respect! S-So I can't… I can't just give up! I'll p-prove that I'm not… that I _can_ win!"

Gaara's smile was sickly.

"How pathetic."

His sand lunged for her, and she barely dodged. It slammed into the wall, leaving a cloud of dust behind, and removed itself from the cracked stones before rushing for her again. Hinata composed herself and rolled quickly. The boy's eyes followed her.

_'He's focusing his attacks on brute force. He's serious. I'm in trouble.'_

Hinata's broken rib sent a wave of pain through her left side as she landed. Her movement halted as she wobbled on her feet.

Gaara smirked, and she was cloaked in darkness.

She gasped at the sudden black, before attempting to move her arms and legs and finding them paralysed.

"This is the end for you."

Her eyes widened. "He's trapped me in his sand...!"

"Die painfully," he said gleefully. "Sand Coffin."

* * *

Sakura, at Naruto's side, gasped and covered her mouth. His eyes widened.

"Hinata!"

The sand did not crush Hinata into pulp. He waited a moment with bated breath, before the sand slowly began dropping to the floor. Bit by bit, it slowly drifted away, until Hinata landed on the floor heaving for breath.

Sakura exhaled deeply, turning to Kakashi. "What did she do?"

Their sensei shrugged.

"It seems she used that same nullification technique she used earlier," he said. "The Hyuuga are renowned for their control over each and every tenketsu."

"You never told me that before I fought that Neji guy," Naruto grumbled.

"You rushed off, and you would have hardly listened anyway."

Naruto pulled a tongue at Kakashi, before turning back to the match.

Gaara was visibly shocked by the turn of events, and Hinata took advantage of that, rushing forward with her fists blue with chakra. The most of his sand lay in a useless lump behind Hinata, and she ran straight forward for a direct attack.

"That's not going to work," muttered Satsuki.

Hinata's palm met first with a small wall of sand. It crumbled before her palm, and she quickly lunged forward once more, the sand protecting him once more and joining the small pile on the floor.

She watched the worry on Gaara's face fester, before, with a victorious grin, Hinata advanced forward with a step.

His sand instinctively rushed to grab her knee, and she slammed her palm straight through it, and carried on.

The blow to his gut sent him skidding across the floor, and Naruto grinned.

"Man," he said, "Hinata's kinda cool, isn't she?"

Satsuki rolled her eyes.

Hinata pulled back her palm, alight with chakra-

"It's over!"

-and ran.

" _Hinata!_ "

* * *

Her hand shook, quivering, hovering over that tiny tenketsu in the heart. The strike of victory, withheld by the mere millimetres between her fingers and that hit - why couldn't she reach?

Her legs weren't working. She tried to reach forward, and was rewarded with a sudden shock of pain. Hinata gasped.

She looked to Gaara to see his lashes stained with red as bright as his hair. Her heartbeat thrummed in her ears, and then all of a sudden she was horribly aware of a hot, thick warmth sliding over her abdomen.

As she looked further down, Hinata was met with that small pile of sand she had deactivated first from the wall. She understood now; that pile that had formed the Sand Coffin had returned to Gaara's ultimate defense, but this small pile had taken too long for that. Rather, it had regained chakra and movement just in time to-

("Hinata," he said, lips barely meeting. "Hinata. Hinata.")

 _impale_ her, straight through the gut

Hinata could feel the warm-wet stickiness of blood seeping through her toes. She couldn't breathe. Couldn't make any noise at all.

She felt cold.

Gaara's eyes followed the dripping of blood so intently that Hinata thought he might have opened his mouth and licked it off the floor.

_'Naruto-kun... I thought I was always watching over you, but this time...'_

Her knees buckled.

" _HINATA!_ "

_'...your eyes were on me, weren't they?'_

The world was distant now. Footsteps, yelling.

He was holding her hand, now, and it was the moment she'd dreamt of if only she could feel that touch a little bit _more._ She tried to memorise the feel of his skin.

Someone was putting a stretcher beside her.

' _I can't hear you.'_ Hinata tried to squeeze his hand. She couldn't even tell if she'd managed to. _'I can't hear anything.'_

Hinata's cheeks were wet now. If she was crying, she couldn't feel her tears. She was lifted onto the stretcher; someone was moving beside her.

_'Neji-kun?'_

It felt like she had tuned into an irrelevant radio broadcast, filled with words and uproar and events and she was just the listener, but now she wanted to speak.

"I'm fine," she said. "I'll be fine."

She couldn't make anything of the noises that came from their lips. Were they speaking the same tongue? Could they understand her words?

"I won't give up now," she said, clasping his hand. "I won't die here…"

Naruto's voice hit her like the final bounce of a distant echo.

" _-Hinata!_ "

His voice was desperate.

"So don't worry," she said. "I won't give up… I won't go back on my word… because that's my ninja…"

_Way._

Hinata died.


	16. Contained

Naruto's hands were slick with injury.

(A shame it wasn't his.)

He couldn't hear the room buzzing with chatting beyond the roar of his heartbeat in his ears. He could, however, feel Neji's gaze wearing through him.

"This is your fault."

Hinata's corpse was being stretchered out by medical ninja. Still on his knees, Naruto didn't pull his gaze away from the sight, only to feel himself pulled up by the collar to face Neji. The boy held him up with one fist, and cocked back the other.

"This is _your fault!_ "

Naruto's jaw cracked under Neji's knuckles, and his vision flashed white with pain. Neji was crying, face twisted with anger, and Naruto looked back at him, saying nothing beneath the Hyuuga's searching gaze.

Neji choked back a frustrated sob, gritting his teeth before lashing Naruto onto the ground and running through the doors.

Gaara, on the other end of the arena, was walking calmly to the stairs to the mezzanine, and Naruto heard every single step.

But he couldn't tear his eyes from his hands, red with Hinata's blood. For a moment he was glad for it, and then the panic set in.

The world blackened.

* * *

After Kakashi had knocked out a hysterical Naruto, and Hinata's corpse had been cleared away, Sakura really couldn't say the mood alleviated. She herself was stuck in horrified shock.

The matches passed from there on in a daze, even Satsuki appearing distracted during her fight - which only turned out favourable likely because of her inexperienced opponent, Yoroi.

Sakura scraped a victory past Chouji, whose brute force had been easily manipulated into a loss with some traps, along with some very unremarkable genjutsu that had allowed Sakura to get behind him and deliver a finishing blow to the back of his head with the handle of her kunai.

Kakashi arrived at the end, after the matchups had been announced: Sakura couldn't say she listened much, but she did hear one pair:

"Uzumaki Naruto versus Sabaku no Gaara."

Her skin prickled at the thought. She pushed it aside to address Kakashi, employing a familiar sullenness so she could ignore the forever-echo of skin pierced.

"You didn't even see our matches!"

"It couldn't be helped. My apologies. But you got through, I see?" Kakashi said, turning a page. "Well done."

The two girls frowned, before Satsuki reached out to speak.

"...Kakashi." She stepped forward. "Naruto is-"

"In safe hands," Kakashi interrupted, snapping his book shut and smiling at them. Sakura felt her stomach drop with the unease of lies.

"Don't worry," he continued. "Now. I had a feeling you two would pass. Satsuki, you'll be trained by me."

The girl grunted. He turned to Sakura.

"I've got you someone special. You'll be meeting your new sensei at the bridge, tomorrow at 9."

"Thanks, Kakashi-sensei." Sakura tried to smile, but found the expression falling off her face and her fingers fumbling. "But what about Naruto?"

"Well," Kakashi said, "I've put him in the hands of… someone else. He'll be fine. But for now, focus on your own training. And well done on passing, both of you."

They nodded, but Sakura saw the subtle dissatisfaction written all over Satsuki's face.

Kakashi nodded in Satsuki's direction. "We'll meet at 9 at the Training Grounds. Don't be late."

Satsuki's eyebrow twitched, and Kakashi disappeared in swirl of leaves. They began making their way out. The hall had emptied.

Sakura cleared her throat and addressed Satsuki with a tone of concern.

"Satsuki-san…"

The girl looked up at her side, hands in pockets.

"The matchups. Naruto's with Gaara."

The Uchiha looked down.

"Yeah."

There was an unsettling silence, and Sakura looked at the grey ceiling.

"I'm scared for him," she said. "Hinata's dead, and- you know, she died… just like that. And so horribly… we all went to school together, you know? I just…"

Satsuki's bowed her head slightly, shading her eyes.

"Naruto won't lose to Gaara," Satsuki said. "But I'm scared for him too."

Sakura blinked.

The Uchiha leaned back a bit, giving Sakura a sidelong glance. "I can't picture Naruto killing someone."

"He's changing," Sakura said, a strange tone to her voice. "He's changing but… sometimes he's so normal I can't even tell."

Satsuki nodded, the unnamed emotion passing between them without words.

"Satsuki-san," she said. "Do you want to come for tea?"

"I'm going to see Naruto."

She blinked. "But Satsuki-san, Kakashi-sensei said-"

"I know what he said."

Sakura stopped, and Satsuki's expression softened.

"But maybe another time," she said. Sakura's cheeks tinted pink.

"Yeah, sure. I'll see you soon, Satsuki-san," she smiled, bowing a little and giving her a small wave. "Tell Naruto I hope he gets well."

Satsuki acknowledged it with a tilt of her head, and a smile that curled the edge of her lips.

"Yeah."

* * *

It didn't take long for Sakura's footsteps to be joined by others.

"Oi! Forehead!"

She turned, to Ino, who settled to her pace at her side. "Hiya, Ino."

The girl was smiling. It was a familiar and comfortable company to Sakura.

"It's been a long exam," Ino said, stretching and yawning. "I'm super glad to have a break."

"Yeah."

Ino dug her finger into Sakura's shoulder, bustling up to her side with a contagious smile. "How've you been forehead? Do you wanna go for some tea? Man, I'm kinda scared for Shikamaru, you know. He's too lazy to be going up against guys like that, you know?"

Sakura felt a shiver run up her spine, and she gave Ino a hesitant look. "That Gaara boy?"

"Yeah," Ino said. "I think he's the number one reason I'm glad I didn't get through. It makes me feel better about losing like that, at least…"

The air weighted down with the unspoken mention of death, before Ino stopped in her steps and teetered on the balls of her feet, turning to Sakura with a reassuring smile. "Come on, forehead. Let's go for tea."

"...sure."

* * *

Satsuki could have rolled her eyes when Kakashi's apartment door wasn't even locked. Naruto was tucked up in his bed.

' _Figures. He's so unprofessional...'_

"Ah, Satsuki."

Satsuki jumped slightly, and gave Kakashi a scowl.

"I see he's in good hands," she said, a bitter edge to her voice. "I could have been anyone."

"Ah, but it was you."

She twitched.

"Now," he said, "I did tell you not to come here."

"You told me he was safe. What do you call this?"

"Fewer people are more highly regarded than me in Konoha, Satsuki. And you'll find that there are ANBU posted all over the village anyway. We're high security right now. Now, if you'd just step back and-"

"I'm staying," Satsuki said coldly, "until he wakes up."

Kakashi sighed, running a hand through his hair. He was dressed more casually than usual.

"This is my apartment, you know. Breaking and entering-"

"You left the door open."

"-trespassing, then. Whatever you want to call it, if I ask you to leave, you should leave."

Satsuki gave Kakashi a look that sent a chill down his spine.

"I'm _staying_."

Kakashi knew better than to argue. He sighed, shrugging, before turning to walk into his kitchen.

"Suit yourself."

After an hour of waiting, Naruto was yet to stir, and when Satsuki returned from a venture to her apartment for tea, he was gone.

"Kakashi."

"Yes?" he said from the couch.

"Naruto's gone."

He popped his head around the door frame. "Oh. I see."

She gave him a scowl, but suspected he was immune.

"Where is he?"

Kakashi walked back into his kitchen, a sing-song tone to his voice. "How should I know?"

Satsuki growled, took a deep breath, and stomped out of the apartment. The rest of her day was spent thinking and searching to no avail until the late night.

Kakashi, on the other hand, knew well that feeling of dull grief. Naruto looked too exhausted, tired of life at the tender age of twelve. Satsuki was too concerned, too pushy to be of any real help.

But then again, he supposed, those two were rather different to he and Obito. Kakashi had always hated Obito in his youth; or so he had liked to think.

* * *

The teashop was cold and humid all at once, with steam that crept along the ceiling like ghosts. Sakura ordered hojicha, and Ino tamaryokucha. They sat down at a table by the window.

"How's your team?" Ino said, her tone mischievous. She had always been too good at distracting Sakura from reality. "Naruto still annoying?"

Sakura rolled her eyes, and looked at the window for a moment.

"He's kinda alright."

"Eh?" Ino said. "That guy? Not annoying you at _all_? He'd drive me up the wall!"

"Well, yeah. I don't think he'd be Naruto if he didn't. He's just… good-intentioned. I can tolerate him most of the time if I bear that in mind."

Ino looked at Sakura for a moment, before shrugging it off and checking her cuticles. "Well, Satsuki? I can imagine she's as cold as ever. Just as perfect, too…"

"Satsuki-san's interesting."

"Interesting?"

"Like, weird. She's really cold, but I think she's got a real soft spot for Naruto."

"What, like, she _likes_ him?" Ino said, incredulous. " _Satsuki?_ "

Sakura hummed thoughtfully. "I think it's kinda hard to explain. Maybe she does, but it sounds kinda weird to me."

Ino nodded. "Tell me about it! After all, she's like a celebrity. Breaking the hearts of both girls and boys. When you've got the pick of the village, are you really gonna go for a guy like _him?_ "

Sakura hummed, tapping her fingers on the desk, before she came to rest her jaw on the palm of her hand.

"It could be that way though," she said after a moment. "And Naruto has a really big softspot for her, too."

Ino just blinked at her.

"I don't think it's that simple for him," Sakura reasoned. "Those two are special. When they're arguing, I feel like there's something else going on there."

When Ino raised an eyebrow of disbelief, Sakura pushed on with a sigh.

"Like, I don't know whether it's romantic, but… they always catch on to each other. They're really in sync, for one, but… I just think there's a lot more to Naruto than him not liking Satsuki and him liking me. And on his own, he really isn't such a loud and obnoxious guy."

Ino paused before her face faded into a wink and a smile, leaning over the table.

"You like him then, forehead?"

"That's not how it is," Sakura said, frowning. "He's just nice. And he always protects us."

Ino shrugged, before smiling slightly. "Well. Maybe that's how it goes. After all, lazy-ass and fat-ass respectively have turned out to be a whole lot more than I could have imagined too. And after all… Naruto beat Neji. _That_ was surprising."

The tea arrived, served by a young girl with her hair tied back with white cloth. They thanked her.

"But," Ino said, testing the tea for a moment before drawing back sharply at the heat, "it's a lot harder than I expected. Not that I thought it would be _fun…_ "

The other girl nodded.

"Being a ninja, you mean?"

Ino hummed in affirmation. Sakura sighed.

"Yeah. It's just a bit…"

Ino nodded, taking a sip of hers and settling it back on the table. She pulled a strand of hair behind her ear. "Not what I expected. Not what _any_ of us expected, though, I think."

She looked out the window; the hustle and bustle of busy traders with street stands continued.

"No one expected Hinata to…" she whispered, before shaking her head. "I can't believe it. That could of been any of us, but… _Hinata_ is…"

"Naruto's devastated," Sakura said quietly. "He really feels like it was all his fault."

There was a thick silence between the two, before Ino snorted derisively into her tea.

"Maybe it was," Ino muttered. "Hinata should have just forfeited. What idiot gives someone hope against an opponent like that?"

Sakura gaped for a moment, indignant.

"Naruto couldn't have possibly known!" she snapped. "What are you saying?"

Ino stared into her tea.

"I know," she said. "I'm sorry. I just can't believe it. I didn't mean to say that."

"He's tearing himself apart anyway," Sakura said, sighing. "Don't let him catch you saying that. He'll never forgive himself."

"I know. Sorry."

* * *

The training grounds were wide and windy. Satsuki bristled at the cold.

There were three posts ahead of her, and a small boy slamming his fists and feet into the centre one with all his might. She could hear the painful hit of bone on wood, and the powerful cries of the boy doing it. It was dark, perhaps after midnight, and she could see barely anything of him.

After a minute, he stopped, his heaves for air inaudible for the breathy wind. He laid flat on the floor, and she could make out his hands over his face. Satsuki walked over.

"Morning, Satsuki."

She stopped at his side, saying nothing. The stench of blood filled the air. He chuckled, the noise fading into his heavy breaths.

"Sit down for a sec," he said, and she did.

She couldn't see Naruto's face, covered by his cut and splintered fingers. Blood trickled from them. Satsuki frowned.

"What have you been doing?" she said with a note of anger, taking her hand gently from his face and activating her Sharingan to see the open wounds in the dark. It brought the cuts into a bloody red focus; many of the wounds were open and weeping. Satsuki turned to him. "And why are you here at this hour?"

Naruto opened an eye to look at her, taking his other hand from his face and holding it up in the moonlight. His face was mirthless, despite the remnants of a grin on his lips.

"I needed to train," he said. "I can't sleep."

Satsuki knew the sting of loss.

(More so the loss borne of weakness.)

She took her attention to his hand.

"This will hurt. Don't move."

She plucked a large splinter from his ring finger, and he winced. It stopped bleeding almost immediately, and with a moment's wonder she moved onto smaller splinters embedded in the back of his hand. Naruto hissed.

It continued for a short while until Naruto spoke.

"I didn't have parents. Or anyone."

Satsuki carried on. He knew she was listening.

"So I always wondered what losing someone was like," he said. "I always thought it would be… not cool, but… they'd die a hero, in my arms, happy, telling me everything I needed to know. Like in the stories, you know?"

She pulled out a particularly large splinter among the shimmering pearls of blood.

"Hinata. She was so convinced she wouldn't die. She was so _sure_." His tone trembled. He opened his mouth, only managed to push out air before it turned into a choked sob. "Is that what we're like before we die? Grovelling? Pitiful? Why is death so- so _incomplete?_ "

Satsuki hesitated, before digging the nail of her index finger into a tender wound to pull out a deeply embedded shred of wood. She stopped. Naruto's hand was warm and wet with pus and blood. The words clogged the back of her throat, and she gripped his hand for a brief moment.

"I don't know," she said.

Naruto's breath hitched, and he whispered to her.

"Does anybody know?" he said. "I don't know what I'm _talking_ about, Satsuki, but I feel like I can't breathe."

Satsuki pinched the raw skin on the back of his hand tightly, and Naruto gasped.

"Bastard, what the hell are you-"

Satsuki wove her fingers into Naruto's.

"See?" she said. "You're breathing."

But funnily enough, for a moment, Naruto was breathless.


	17. Glass

Konoha was quiet. The streets were empty, bar the market men fixing their stands and salesmen clucking their throats for a day of advertisement. In the corners of the street were huddles of women.

Naruto walked.

"Did you hear? He-"

"...that poor girl…"

"The heiress, too..."

His hand stung. He kept his eyes trained on the cobbles beneath his feet until the streets narrowed into alleys, the chatter simmering into fizz.

He looked up; the cemetery gates were ajar, and Naruto passed through, coming to stand at Mizuki's grave.

There was a sprout at its base. It wavered in a breeze, but remained grounded. With that, Naruto knelt, withdrawing two sticks of incense and sparking a lighter at their ends. He stood them up and closed his eyes.

The silence was uncanny. Naruto stuttered.

"An apple tree is growing. Did you like apples, Mizuki-sensei?"

Silence. Naruto adjusted his crossed legs, and sighed, laughing at the edges of the sound.

"To be honest, when I grow them myself, they're always sour," Naruto said, becoming quieter. "So it wouldn't be so bad if it died, right?"

It was a cloudy day, and the plant, a miserable gray, said nothing.

"And it's not due to bear apples for years, either," he said. "Kinda useless, huh?"

The air was chilling him slowly, crawling up his fibia and nesting in his tendons. Shivering, Naruto bent a blade of grass beneath his thumb, and bit his lip.

"It's the same thing, right?" he said, looking away. "So why can't I be with you again?"

Hugging his knees to his chest then, an hour passed. Naruto made to stand.

"Uzumaki Naruto."

He froze, joints stuck.

"There is a protectiveness over the bodies of those whom you love. I can't kick them or punch them. And yet people bury the bodies deep underground."

Naruto was still. He could hear the sand shape-shifting like the gossip of ill spirits.

Gaara came closer.

"I know you're wondering. I can smell it." His breath was like a cold stroke on his cheek. "So I'll tell you."

Naruto's teeth chattered. Gaara spoke softer.

"Tin, it was like," he said. "Copper, and warmer than you'd expect."

Gaara was whispering now.

"It's alright to accept what you see, Uzumaki Naruto." A smile. "Those people with those looks. You know. You _do_ know. I _know_ you know, Uzumaki Naruto."

"Leave, Gaara."

The boy behind him faltered, and then Naruto spoke louder.

" _Leave!"_

Gaara seemed to seethe for a small moment, hesitating, before he snickered.

"That's right," he said. "Pretending it's not real is the first step, right? Deluding yourself."

The quirk in his tone twisted into a bitterness. "But the truth is that none of this is worth anything at all. The only thing that is worth anything is you. _Me._ **Us.** We are two of a kind. I had never seen those eyes on anyone else before."

"Gaara," Naruto said, voice shaking, " _Leave."_

"So I have advice for you, Uzumaki Naruto. No one else in this wretched world will ever give you the truth, so treasure it."

The wind kicked up, and Naruto heard the battering movement of nature, and a deafening whistle.

"Live for _yourself._ " said Gaara. "Love _only_ your _self._ Crush all that questions your existence, and you shall be certain."

Gaara breathed out, and placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"But you, and your existence, question me. Do you know what that means, Naruto?"

Naruto was still.

"I must erase you. I _shall_ erase you."

Naruto felt his fingers trembling.

"Eyes must be silenced." Gaara pushed down onto the top of Naruto's head as he got to his feet. "Lips must be shut."

Moving to leave, Gaara pulled out a tiny clump of hairs from Naruto's scalp, and chuckled as they scattered from his open palm.

"I won't leave enough of you for a grave."

As his footsteps faded away, Naruto fell backwards, onto the grass. His head hit the grass with a blunt thump.

His skin crawled, and his thinner limbs curled in on himself like a dying spider.

"I won't let you touch me," Naruto said. "Never again."

* * *

"You know when you said you were going to become a ninja, me and your mother didn't really think you'd pass."

Sakura picked at her eggs.

"Alright," she said. "That's great. I passed. And now I'm in the chuunin exams."

He brought the sides of the paper together to pull it apart again to another page. "We're ninja too, you know. Being chuunin isn't easy. That's why we retired. It's dangerous you know, and they say there's another war on the way..."

"The wars are over, Dad."

"That's what they always say."

" _Dad._ "

"What we're saying, Sakura," her mother said, "is that it's important you know what you're getting into. And we're not saying you can't _do_ it, but-"

"But you are," Sakura said. "You're saying I can't do it."

Her mother bit her cheek, clearing up the cutlery. "That's not the problem. What we're worried about is if you _can_ do it."

Sakura stood up, pushing her chair back and taking her plate to the sink. She set it on the draining board.

"I'm going to do it. I'll see you later."

She walked past the two of them, took her bag by the door, slipped on her shoes and left.

Mebuki rolled her eyes, sending the father a sidelong glare.

"Do you have to be so _blunt_ about these things?"

"Everything's blunt to Sakura," Kizashi said, not taking his eyes off the paper. "She's not stupid. Sidling around the subject just aggravates her. She can take the hint. You know that treating her like a little girl disrespects how far she's come."

"She _is_ a little girl, Kizashi." Mebuki folded her arms and turned to him. "And what sort of little girl makes a good ninja? You know that rule: know your enemy and know yourself-"

"And in one hundred battles you shall never be in peril," Kizashi said, closing and folding his newspaper. "Yes, I know."

Mebuki raised an eyebrow. "And?"

"I'm not certain of it, but I think maybe Sakura knows what she's doing."

"And you trust her enough to allow her to risk her life for that?"

"Not really, no."

Sakura's mother sighed. "I thought we got married. You're at least meant to take my side in arguments."

"Darling, I said in sickness and in health. Arguments are a whole other matter."

* * *

The day began with a man called Ebisu, and after a turn of events, ended with a man called Jiraiya, who was white-haired, old, and seemingly far too interested in breasts to be of much use. The day was spent training to stand on water.

Although Naruto had his doubts, after a day of hard work, Naruto began to see something wise and worn about the man.

They had settled into a cliff-side hot springs. Naruto looked over onto the stretch of canopy.

"Hey, ero-sennin."

Silence.

"Ero-sennin."

Naruto rolled his eyes.

" _Jiraiya-sensei._ "

"What is it, my aspiring student?" said Jiraiya, and Naruto groaned.

"Can't I just say ero-sennin?"

"It's no easier, you little brat," he grumbled. "You're just trying to cause me trouble. You'd better not say that around any pretty girls."

"Yeah, alright, whatever," Naruto said, waving him off. "Anyway, ero-sennin, I have a question."

"I just said-" Jiraiya said, leaning back and reaching to pour himself a small cup of sake. "Whatever. What's your question?"

"When you say things are for the village, you're not talking about like… the buildings itself, right?"

Jiraiya blinked. "Well, of course not."

"So what's everyone _talking_ about?" Naruto said, leaning towards Jiraiya. "For the sake of Konoha, and stuff. I mean, sure. We've got some nice shops. But there's nothing that great about this place, right?"

The sage didn't answer. Naruto cupped water in his hands and rubbed it into his scalp.

"Ero-sennin, why did _you_ become a ninja?"

Jiraiya leant back, and there was a silence.

"It's a hard question to answer now," he said, "All these years on. But I suppose I saw something of worth in being a ninja. I thought the Hokage were cool, for one. And then, the reason I carried on being a shinobi… I found this village worth protecting in the end, too."

Naruto didn't say anything.

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow. "Why? What do you _think_ being a shinobi is about, kid?"

"I… dunno," Naruto said. "In the past… if being Hokage meant being a ninja, I decided I'd be a ninja. There wasn't too much else to it. That, and being a ninja looked pretty cool too, I guess."

Jiraiya snorted. "And why did you want to be Hokage?"

Naruto paused, burying his head in his arms.

"Dunno."

Jiraiya frowned.

"So what now? Why are you bothering with these exams, then?"

"That's what I don't know. I was just asking. I wanted to be Hokage, but that's not it anymore. Bit by bit, it gets harder to carry on with this. And I don't even know why I _am._ If no one else does, why the hell are people dying for a cause they don't understand, in such… such stupid, _pointless_ ways?"

"More people than you think are probably doing it for the sake of others," he mused. "People become ninja for other people too. Just not in a heroic way. To impress your dad, maybe. Or to kill someone who's done an injustice against someone you love. It's not always to protect the greater good. But it's often for the sake of others."

Naruto was silent.

"For instance, a lot of ninja fight for the safety of their relatives, friends and family. The new generation. The future."

"The future?"

"Ninja believe the Will of Fire burns in the new generation. With every generation we come closer to a peaceful world."

Jiraiya paused. Naruto, in his head, likened him to a lumbering and wise elephant.

"We ninja do what we do for a cause," he said. "We fight for our village, or for our friends, or for peace. A ninja who fights without a cause becomes nothing. No, it's not always other people. But it's something."

"And if the cause is myself?"

"If that's a good enough cause, then fine." Jiraiya sat against the rocks. "A cause like yourself wasn't enough for me. After all, only by comparing ourselves to others can we understand ourselves. Even the village, at a point, didn't seem so great."

"What convinced you, huh? All the pretty women, or something?"

Jiraiya smiled, a cocky half grin that wore decades and memories in its creases.

"Something better than any woman."

Naruto scoffed. "Don't believe you."

Jiraiya laughed.

"I did some travelling. It took time… but I saw something wrong in the world of ninja. Our economy is built on grudges and bloodshed." Jiraiya cupped the water in his hands and brought it to his face. "I saw the possibility for a world where we could come to understand one another."

"Eh?"

Jiraiya stilled. "Peace, Naruto."

The young boy looked at Jiraiya with a raised eyebrow. "Peace? That's what you value more than women, ero-sennin? Seriously? But you seem to put more time into chasing women than you do to world-peace..."

Jiraiya smiled to himself, but it was an expression without mirth. He brought his gaze to the stars.

"People spend years chasing those that have hurt them. They spend years digging into old wounds in search of something that can undo the pain. No one steps back to wear the scars proudly. We spend years believing that the dead deserve peace."

Naruto snorted, and there was a turn in his mood.

"Don't they?" he said, looking to Jiraiya with a sneer. " _Don't_ the dead deserve peace? You expect those who've lost someone to forgive and forget?"

"Naruto-"

"What kind of world do you think this _is?_ "

Jiraiya looked at Naruto, tired.

"The dead are already at peace," he said. "The people who deserve peace are us. The living, forever strung in a cycle of vengeance."

"Like I believe that," Naruto snapped, his voice bending upwards. "You think a world can run on forgiveness? On kindness? You really think that everyone is going to think like that - that everyone can understand each other that way - and that it would _last?_ "

Naruto's voice echoed along the rock face, but Jiraiya did not answer.

When he opened his mouth to prod his teacher, the man spoke.

"What brought this on? The Hyuuga girl?"

Naruto flinched. "So you knew she was involved, huh?"

There was an accusation there. Jiraiya's eyes narrowed.

"Don't make assumptions. The death of an important Hyuuga heir gets around, and now, you're asking all these questions. Not hard to piece together what happened from that."

Jiraiya poured another cup of sake.

"I have lost as you have lost," he said. "More so. More loss than someone like you could ever imagine."

"Does that mean this doesn't _hurt?_ "

Jiraiya looked at him, and Naruto couldn't meet his eye, his voice trembling.

"I just want to avenge Hinata's death. I just to make him _pay,_ " he said. "I just want to be _strong!_ So I- So I don't ever have to see that again…!"

The sage sighed with a sour curl of his lips, and closed his eyes.

"Revenge festers in the wounds of the grieving and the hurt and drives you mad before you die." He drank the sake. "A death that leaves you unrecognisable to everyone who loves you."

Naruto let out a mirthless laugh, and turned from Jiraiya to look into the night.

"So what you're _really_ telling me it's wrong for me to look for a justice. _Any_ justice."

"You think killing someone will give you that justice? You really think justice can even _be_ found in a world like this?" Jiraiya motioned to his forehead with his thumb. "When we put on those headbands, we resigned ourselves to a life of economical murder. We forfeited our morality. And you talk about _justice_ , like it's _anything_ to a ninja."

Naruto didn't move and Jiraiya took a long sip of his sake, his lips smacking off the brim with a satisfied 'ah'. He leant backwards, staring into the sky.

"I didn't say anything about killing someone," said Naruto sharply.

"You didn't have to. Revenge is _vile,_ Naruto. It turns you away from who you are and those who love you."

Naruto choked, half-laughing, half-suffering.

"Then I guess I don't have anything to lose, right?"

It fell quiet.

"Someone will care, Naruto," Jiraiya said. "Whether you want them to or not."

Naruto snorted. "You're acting like I don't _want_ people to care. Like this is _so_ much fun."

"Are you giving them the opportunity?"

"I have a purpose to find." Naruto buried his head in his arms. "Wherever it is. But for now, I want this. I was too weak to do anything then, I was too weak to do anything afterwards, but I will be strong enough, and I _will_ win."

Jiraiya leaned back, breathing out in that thick silence.

"And you think that girl would have wanted this for you?" Jiraiya asked, tone low. "A reality like this?"

Naruto curled in on himself, his voice splitting and splintering like a twig. "What does it matter? It's just me now. If Hinata wanted to tell me what to do, she should have survived."

* * *

After hours of burning her fingertips, Satsuki allowed her back to lean against a tree and her legs slip out from beneath her. Her breathing began to steady, and Kakashi sat down beside her.

"Good work for today," he said. Satsuki pushed down a smile.

"Thanks, geezer."

"That's an awful thing to say. You know it's just the hair."

Satsuki didn't respond.

"I'm still in my twenties!" Kakashi said. "And even if I wasn't, I would be a silver fox."

The birds tweeted, and Kakashi sighed.

"We'll be moving onto more elemental training tomorrow. Are you ready?"

Satsuki shot him a look from the side.

"I know, I know."

Satsuki leant back onto the bark, the knots digging into her back.

"Kakashi."

"What is it?"

"Naruto," she said. "What do you think of him?"

"Naruto?" Kakashi hummed. "Well, he's an individual. Unique."

She looked at Kakashi again, and the man shrugged.

"It's hard to analyse someone like Naruto. And don't you think trying to figure him out like that feels a bit wrong? People aren't there to be analysed."

"I'm not analysing him." Satsuki said. "He's been acting strange."

"Grief does strange things to people. Don't judge them on something like that."

"It's not just that, and you know it."

Kakashi turned the page.

"And you, Satsuki?"

She stiffened, but he continued.

"Are you to judge Naruto's clamoring for revenge?"

"Like that's comparable at all," Satsuki hissed. "Naruto is-"

"A human like any other. With loss, like any other. I don't want that for Naruto either, but those in glass houses should not throw stones."

She hesitated, gritting her teeth. "It's not the same thing."

"Isn't it?" Kakashi said, looking at her. "What makes you an exception, Satsuki?"

Satsuki stopped, clenching her fists. The noon was loud with birdsong.

"You know this isn't right," she said. "Not for Naruto."

* * *

Sakura waited at the bridge that morning.

She listened to the rush of water below the planks. The trees mumbled, garbled whispers carrying across the frothing sibilance of the Naka river.

She plastered on a smile, thought of Ino- ( _'You've got a cute smile, you know, Sakura. If it can cheer up everyone else, why not you?'_ ) -and reassured herself.

"What do _you_ like in the mornings?"

Sakura shrieked, tripped, and toppled into the water.

Mitarashi Anko roared with laughter, stood on the wooden railing of the bridge, and screamed.

"A wake up call, _bitch!_ The Training Grounds in 10! If you're still wet I'll make you regret it!"

* * *

Sakura turned up at the Training Grounds ten minutes later, ringing out her hair with a fervor and hating Kakashi.

"Oh, you came. That's a start."

Sakura frowned, trying to find her sensei. The woman appeared at her side, and she jumped.

"Stop that!"

Anko blinked. "Oh. I was kidding about the being wet thing, by the way. I thought it would be funny but now I'm kinda impressed."

Sakura scowled. Her skin crawled with the damp.

"Right," Anko said, dusting off her pants. "So. Let's clear up a few things."

"I didn't plan on being a sensei. That's why I'm a tokubetsu jonin. But the payoff was good, so I bent to Kakashi just this once."

"I don't bother with weaklings. I've heard good things about you, and to get this far, I imagine you've got some skill on you. I'm going to put my faith in that. If you're not, you'll be crushed besides. But, for your own sake, don't waste my time. Understand?"

"Y-Yes, Anko-sensei."

"Good. Now, I've got a rundown from your teacher. I hear you're quite intelligent."

"That's-"

"Nothing to be ashamed of. I myself excel more theoretically than I do physically. There is a reason humans have managed to survive in the face of demons taller than mountains." Anko tapped her skull, winking. "It's our minds. Likewise, we are the true weapons of the battlefield."

She paused, her face overcome with unreadable emotion, before she spoke again with conviction.

"I heard you encountered Orochimaru."

Sakura shuddered at the memory.

"He's a demon of a man, in mind and soul. And a genius, no less. But he taught me, once upon a time, using these."

Anko brought up some long and thin needles, poising them between her index finger and thumb. Sakura almost winced.

"Now, they look bendy, and kinda weak," Anko went on. "Let me tell you that they're not."

"Do I throw them?"

"When you get good enough, yes. Until then? Your best bet is to get these babies and dig em straight in - not too deep, or you'll end up leaving them behind - and rake them through the skin. Get the right spot, and you could end up tearing a few muscles, an artery, some nerves... let me tell you, they're just as good as a kunai, and with a mind like yours, a hell of a lot more lethal."

Anko whipped them down her sleeve.

"But first," she said, "you're going to have to learn about kyusho."

"Kyusho?"

"Yes. Pressure points. Kyushojutsu. The death touch. The art of finding vital points and striking them."

Sakura frowned.

"Let me guess," Anko said, exasperated. "You're used to seeing brute strength win each battle. And then you've got those who are born to a special family, that name branded on their foreheads like it's their goddamn golden ticket to victory. I don't believe in that bullshit. Clever girls like you win. You read their moves, you study every damn muscle, you dodge, and you take them out with a vital point strike."

The woman put her right leg forward, lowering herself into a defensive stance.

"So, to begin, come at me with the intention to hit me below my jawline, behind my ear or straight into my eyes." Anko held up her index and middle fingers. "Just with your fingers."

"W-What!"

"Think dirty-fighting, yeah?"

Sakura blinked.

" _Dirty?_ "

"Yeah, you know. Brutal. Immoral. Like flashing your boob at a cashier for an extra packet of noodles."

Sakura choked.

* * *

Satsuki had settled down to bed. There came a knock.

"Satsuki-san?"

Her heart didn't sink when it wasn't Naruto, but floundered in her chest. The nostalgia struck her.

Sakura looked tired and an inch desperate, mucky with a bag on her shoulder.

"Sakura."

"Satsuki-san," Sakura said, dipping her head until the Uchiha raised an impatient eyebrow. "S-Sorry, I, uh - I need somewhere to stay. Uh- not for long, you know, just… maybe one night, or two, I just…"

The girl frowned. "Why, what is it?"

Sakura looked away from Satsuki. "Just my parents, you know? I…"

' _Yeah,'_ Satsuki thought. ' _Must be hard having people at home waiting for you.'_

Sakura shrunk away. "But you know, if you- if I'm intruding, or you need to be somewhere, then I'll just… you know."

Biting her cheek, Satsuki tried to remember the arguments between her parents, and stood straighter.

"No," she said, stepping aside. "Come in."

Sakura breathed out, laying her bag by the door and pulling off her shoes.

"Sit down," Satsuki said, drifting towards the kitchen unit. "I'll make some tea."

Sakura smiled and nodded.

The water simmered. Satsuki took two cups and dishes down from the cupboards and set about preparing the leaves. "Did something happen?"

"I-yeah… kind of. My parents are really kind of angry that I came home from the Chuunin exams so injured. They're trying to make me quit as a ninja."

Satsuki scooped the leaves into each cup. "And?"

"What?"

She tapped the spoon against the rim. "Why don't you?"

Sakura leaned forward, her eyes wide.

" _Quit?_ "

"Yes."

There was a pause.

"I-" Sakura said, "Because I'm a _ninja_. I'm halfway through the Chuunin exams, too!"

"And that's good enough?"

Sakura was silent.

The kettle boiled. The Uchiha poured the water with a lilt in her wrist. "As a child, I was always interested in following in the footsteps of my father. It was a career I entered because of my family.

"Going against your family as a child is odd," Satsuki said, stirring the tea, "but not bad."

Sakura looked towards Satsuki.

"Didn't you ever think about why you did it?"

"Well… Ino was becoming a ninja." Sakura stared into her tea. "And I liked Ino. That's why I carried on with it… but why I started? I… liked the look of it."

Satsuki frowned.

"I liked the look of being a kunoichi," Sakura said. "Everyone loved that I was such a delicate, girly kid, with pink hair… and I still like doing my makeup and dressing up. But I wanted to be more than that. I wanted to show everyone else that I didn't have to be _just_ pretty or _just_ girly. Fighting looked scary, but - but I wanted to _do_ it."

The Uchiha took the two cups of tea by the dish. She set a cup in front of Sakura. The girl nodded in appreciation, and Satsuki sat down in front of her, putting her hand beneath her cup and taking a short sip.

"A bit of a stupid reason to get yourself killed," Satsuki said. Sakura shriveled beneath her regard. "What about now?"

"I don't know."

The evening was dull; her tea caught the faint glimmer of the miserable sky. Sakura ran her thumbnail along the rim.

"I just know I don't want to give up over something so stupid," she said, quiet. "But now - with you and Naruto so far ahead of me - I just know I can't give up. Because if something happened, and I couldn't protect you all because I'd given up on this stupid dream of mine…"

She looked down.

"I'd just rather have some extra wasted ninja training than give up at this point," Sakura said. "Do you get what I mean?"

Satsuki didn't respond. Her tea swayed in the porcelain.

"I don't think it's a waste," she said after a long moment. "You'll be great, Sakura."

"You think?"

"Yes."

* * *

The funeral was a cold and grey affair.

It took place in the Hyuuga grounds, a week after Hinata's death. The Rookie 9 and their teachers were at the very back of the service, each pew lined with white all-seeing eyes. The mood was somber and firm; it reminded Satsuki of the service held for Shisui, the only Uchiha funeral she had attended.

A surprising amount of older Hyuuga spent more time glaring at the non-Hyuuga children than they did heads bowed mourning, but Satsuki found herself unsurprised. Shino was quiet and hunched; Kiba wept openly, his dog whining like the whistling of a sad wind.

All throughout, Naruto was very, very quiet.

* * *

Satsuki came home late, and Sakura was waiting on her bed. The Uchiha set water on the stove and began to get changed.

"I don't want to leave my door open for you again, Sakura."

Sakura tore her eyes from the book and up at Satsuki. The water came to a boil. She felt shame crawl red on her face.

"I-I'm sorry," said Sakura, clambering off of Satsuki's bedcovers and reaching for her bag. "I didn't mean to inconvenience you like that-"

"No."

Satsuki rolled her eyes, and Sakura barely caught the object that came soaring straight at her oversized forehead. She looked at the item and blinked.

"It's a copy of my key," Satsuki said. "Don't lose it."

* * *

The afternoon drew to a close.

Naruto didn't bother going to see Jiraiya. The man would be occupied at this hour.

Hinata had been buried just outside of the Hyuuga complex.

When he arrived, the headstone was covered in white lilies. Naruto knelt and lifted the label buried in the mound of petals.

The picture on it was unlike the one Team 7 had gotten done during their D-rank missions.

* * *

The man lifted his head from the black curtain of the camera.

"No good. You two, closer."

Kakashi frowned. "Satsuki. Naruto."

"But she _smells_."

"Maybe that's because _you_ pushed me in cow shit."

"Just stand closer together, you two. Sakura, you're doing a great job."

"...thanks, sensei."

When Naruto shifted a minute amount, holding his nose, Kakashi sighed.

"This is the _last_ time I'm going to ask you two."

"He won't move."

"Do _you_ want to stand next to her, Kakashi-sensei?!"

The cameraman shot them an exasperated look, and Satsuki growled, yanking Naruto over to her with a handful of his hair.

"Agh- what do you think you're doing, you bastard-?!"

"Stay still and stop whining."

"Get _off!_ You're hurting me!"

"Just take the damn photo."

* * *

Sakura had been smiling. Satsuki was pulling Naruto toward her with an irritated look, and Naruto was visibly yelping. They both looked angry, and Kakashi looked somewhat exhausted, but it was the best photo, because at least in that one Naruto and Satsuki looked a little bit like they were laughing.

Team 8 looked better. Kurenai was smiling behind all of them, pulling them into her embrace. Kiba was at the right, making a peace sign with one hand and drawing Hinata into the centre of the photo with his other. Shino had his hands in his pockets on the left but was smiling, the quirk of his lips visible only barely above his collar. Hinata was centred, blushing with her hands clasped to her front. There were no gaps between them.

On the back, in impeccable calligraphy, was written:

' _Your smile, even now, brightens up the world's darkest corners._

_It hurts to say farewell. Goodbye, Hinata._

_\- Team 8'_

Below it were three signatures. Kiba's name was written in an illegible, grieving scrawl.

He reached into the small box of incense and sparked the lighter. Blowing the flames out, a wisp of smoke spun into the wind.

The long moment passed quickly, and with a blurry glance to the picture of Hinata smiling, Naruto left with his hands in his pockets.

Neji stood beside the gates. Naruto kept his gaze low. The Hyuuga spoke just as Naruto thought he'd gotten past.

"What are you doing here?"

Naruto lifted his head. "I was just paying my respects."

There was no response. He turned.

"For someone who hated Hinata," he said, "you were pretty upset when she died."

He waited for an outburst, or a punch, but Neji did nothing. Naruto could smell grass, and the cloying scent of smoke.

"It's hard to say what Hinata was to me." Neji put his hands in his pockets. "A channel for my hatred. She was a symbol of the Hyuuga's darker past. It was easy to beat her down. Gratifying, even."

Naruto was silent. Neji turned away from him.

"Tch. The fight she put up was pathetic. She's gone to me now."

In the distance, he could hear the low-tone grumble of everyday life. It was far off.

"You cried for her," said Naruto.

Neji opened his mouth, the beginning of unspoken words staccato. His breath hitched as he closed his eyes.

He walked into the graveyard with a slow, stolid pace. The Hyuuga's voice simmered with a certain menace.

"Don't think for a _moment_ that I have forgiven you, Uzumaki Naruto."

Neji _hated_ him.

"A man who lives how you do ends up dead," he sneered. "Your luck won't last. And I'll be glad to see it."

But then Neji stopped, and turned back to Naruto. His empty white gaze stared straight through him.

"If you're sorry," Neji said, "make amends. But forget about making them with me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to update Uzumaki here. I've been super busy. So I'm just putting extra updates up here, 17 and 18 to be exact.
> 
> Updates are out of the question until June 16th. Thanks very much.


	18. Calm

It was with a silent agreement that Satsuki and Naruto began training together.

He was in her clearing of the woods. When she arrived, it was with some sort of mutual nod that they pounced, knives on fans.

Neither of them won the first time. They both settled in the dust, breathing heavily, and left together in a tired walk late at night.

* * *

Satsuki came home tired and wounded.

The exhaustion was down to Kakashi, who took unusual pleasure in pushing Satsuki to the limits of her chakra manipulation.

She was wounded because of Naruto, who had hit her harder with every strike. Today, he had nicked her arm with a kunai; the cut was deep.

Sakura was here again, but that wasn't so bad.

The young girl was lying on her front on the bed, poring over a magazine.

Satsuki began unpacking her gear.

"Hey, Satsuki-san-"

Satsuki looked up.

"Do you know Miyamoto Koichi?"

Satsuki frowned, shaking her head. Sakura turned the magazine towards her and pointed at a boy, with pretty, feminine features, bright red hair, and very dark eyes. He was topless, muscled, and for some reason, oily. Sakura looked very enthusiastic about that.

"Isn't he just so-"

She cut off with a quiet squeal, drawing her finger along the printed line of his jaw. "He's just so _pretty,_ Satsuki-san! Haven't you seen him in the media? He's so big right now!"

Satsuki pulled off her shoes and then her socks, running a hand through her her hair and bringing both hands to scrape it back into a ponytail.

"I don't read the newspapers," Satsuki said. She grabbed a hair tie from her nightstand.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "It's not just the newspapers, Satsuki-san! He's seriously everywhere. Have you been living under a rock?"

Satsuki didn't respond, winding the band around her ponytail twice before she tightened it and kicked her shoes aside.

"It says here he's from Iwa," Sakura went on, "and that he's a professional enka singer-

Satsuki raised an eyebrow, reaching down to the hem of her shirt and pulling it over her head. "He's not a shinobi?"

Sakura paused. She drew her gaze from Satsuki quickly.

"Well, not everyone likes the idea of being a shinobi, Satsuki-san."

Satsuki tossed aside her shirt into a pile of crumpled clothing. "Why bother wasting your time to become strong if you have no purpose in it? What a waste."

Sakura hummed, turning the page to eye the bending angle of his waist. "Perhaps you're looking into it too much. He's just nice to look at, you know? It doesn't always have to be about ninja. Strength. You know. Some people want a different life to that… and that's alright, isn't it?"

Satsuki frowned and reached for a white nightgown; her feet were bare as she moved towards the balcony.

"I just don't understand," Satsuki said with difficulty, her hands clasped on the plastic handle of the sliding door.

"Eh?"

"I don't understand what there could be in a life without that."

Sakura didn't look at Satsuki.

"Maybe you should try, then, Satsuki-san," she said. "There's more to life than being a strong ninja, I think. At least, I hope so."

Satsuki slid the door shut behind her.

The night was loud with drinking. An erubescent glow poured through the bars of the railing and onto her feet.

She pulled up a chair to the table, and took a look at her plant. The leaves curled at their edges, brown and frail.

She saw a nub-like bud forming, green tipped with crimson.

Satsuki brought a shaking, pale thumb to touch the tightly wound spire.

'Fantasy,' she thought. 'Sakura's stuck in a fantasy.'

Regardless, Satsuki did not read scrolls into the early hours, and instead pulled her chair up to the edge of the balcony and looked out until Sakura fell asleep. She took the couch.

* * *

Satsuki sometimes wondered why Sakura was clean when she saw her lounging on her bed at home.

Sakura did, however, leave earlier than Satsuki, which meant that Sakura likely got a shower, but left the bathroom spotless. It didn't really feel like she was living with anyone else at all, if it were not for the background noise of turning pages.

This day, though, Sakura was in her mirror with a stubby pencil that she was sticking in her eye. Satsuki watched with a degree of morbid fascination.

"You'd look so beautiful with some eyeliner, Satsuki-san," Sakura said. Her mouth contorted into an 'o' as she pulled her eyelids. "Not that you don't look nice already. You know, Ino was convinced you wore makeup, but I wasn't."

Satsuki snorted. "I've never owned any makeup at all."

"I so knew it," Sakura said, before she leant back and offered Satsuki the small charcoal liner. "Do you want to try it, Satsuki-san?"

The Uchiha watched for a moment longer, before she closed her eyes and began pulling her hair up into a bun.

"I don't want to stick that into my eyes. It doesn't look worth it."

Sakura twitched.

"I hope you're not trying to insult my looks, Satsuki-san," Sakura muttered, coming back to the mirror and bringing the crayon to her waterline. "Even if you don't bother with makeup, why not something else?"

"What are you trying to do, Sakura?"

Sakura caught her cornea, and winced.

"I think you need a hobby."

Satsuki blinked. "Excuse me?"

"All you think about is being a ninja. Even if you don't get tired of it now, you will one day. Why don't you do pottery or something?"

"No."

"Okay, so… painting?"

"I am not an artist."

"Fine, fine," Sakura said, one hand holding her hair up and the other fumbling for a clip on the stand. "Have you ever considered juggling?"

Satsuki scowled.

Sakura sighed, shoving a pin into her hair. "Sewing?"

Satsuki froze.

Sakura eyed her through the mirror, blinking. "Do you _like_ sewing?"

The Uchiha coughed and looked to the side. "I've never sewn."

"Do you want to?"

"...I guess."

Sakura clapped her hands together before grabbing Satsuki's wrist and pulling her towards the door.

"That sounds great. Let's get the stuff now!"

"Sakura, it's late-"

"Come _on!_ "

* * *

Sakura guided Satsuki through the various stitches. Sakura was not in and of herself in any way _exceptional,_ but she knew what she was doing.

Tentative, Satsuki cut out a piece of black material, bought some string, and then a few reels of gold and red. She began sewing.

Satsuki was, however, impressively awful.

"Sakura. What the hell do I do?"

There was a large knot in the previous stitches. Satsuki didn't know how she had missed it. There were too many stitches and they were too small.

"This is what a seam ripper is for."

Satsuki came as close to gaping as Sakura imagined she'd see in her lifetime.

"You're going to rip out all of the stitches I just did?" she said, eyes glued to the pattern. " _All_ of them?"

Sakura lifted the material.

"That's sewing, Satsuki-san."

Satsuki watched as Sakura plucked and snapped each and every strand.

Her fists shook in her lap. Sakura looked at her warily.

"Satsuki-san? Are you alright? It doesn't have to be sewing, you know-"

"It's fine," she bit out. "I'll do it."

* * *

_Mikoto dug a pin into a fold of loose fabric on Satsuki's dress. It was a wedding soon. Satsuki didn't know whose._

" _Mother, how can you sew so well?" Satsuki asked. "It looks hard."_

_Mikoto winked at her, a needle in her mouth as she adjusted the material. She took it out with a light laugh. "I like to think of myself as the unsung hero of the Uchiha clan, Satsuki. After all, who do you think is sewing all the emblems on?"_

* * *

"You're seeing Naruto, now, right?"

Satsuki froze.

"What?"

"I just thought you would be," Sakura said, blowing a strand of hair out of her face. "Training with him, I mean. You come back later some days, and you're always-"

A pause.

"-irritated."

Satsuki opened her wardrobe, undressing. Sakura knew by now that Satsuki was brisk about this kind of thing. She got dressed into comfortable clothing, made herself tea, and sat down all in the space of two minutes.

"Sometimes," Satsuki said.

Sakura hummed appreciatively, taking the magazine and rolling onto her back to hold it above her.

"Then, Satsuki-san, invite him out for dinner next time you see him. And Kakashi-sensei, too. We can all go out together."

Satsuki sat on her couch, cradling a cup of tea with a smirk.

"Do you miss him?"

Sakura didn't miss a beat. "Not one bit."

* * *

This fight ended with Naruto catching Satsuki off guard and punching her to the ground with a horde of shadow clones. The humiliation bit, but she knew she was exhausted and off-form, and she held herself back from throwing him a sucker punch post-spar.

In the dust afterwards, Naruto settled beside her.

"Naruto," she said. "Sakura asked if you want to come out with us for dinner."

He looked at her.

"As Team 7," she reiterated. "I've invited Kakashi."

"Later?"

Satsuki nodded, and Naruto shifted for a moment, looking away from her.

"Okay," he said. "Is it Ichiraku Ramen?"

"No."

"Where is it?"

"Not Ichiraku Ramen."

"You are such a bastard."

* * *

They ate at a fancy-esque restaurant that Sakura picked. The tables were worn but clean, and the lighting was a warm red that made Satsuki drowsy.

"Where's Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto said, tapping the table. "Is he gonna be late again?"

Satsuki rolled her eyes.

"What do _you_ think, Naruto?" Sakura sighed. "In any case, let's just order without him."

Naruto ordered ramen, and although Satsuki and Sakura both objected, the order ended up sliding by with minor protest. Sakura ordered red bean soup, and Satsuki ordered rice with chicken.

Sakura seemed pleased at the atmosphere, leaning over to Naruto and smiling.

"So," she said, "How's your training coming along?"

He perked up, bringing his hands up to the back of his head with a smile.

"Okay, I guess," he said, grinning. "I've been working super hard at some super cool training! You're gonna be so impressed, Sakura-chan, for real!"

Sakura looked at the bags beneath Naruto's eyes and wondered of that hard work.

"But my sensei is this old pervert guy," he went on, "and did you know he writes Kakashi-sensei's books?"

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, and Sakura-chan, he is just such a weirdo…"

The conversation became a distant buzz to Satsuki. She could see only the excitement on Naruto's face, a forward enthusiasm as he babbled to Sakura. It was fast and continuous with no break for thought.

' _Maybe that's the point,'_ she thought.

"-Satsuki, what's your training been like?"

She snapped out of her daze, blinking at Naruto and Sakura who had at some point turned their attentions to her. Satsuki felt a cocky quirk come to her lips, and she snorted derisively in Naruto's direction.

"I'm going to beat you either way," she said, "so why does it matter?"

Naruto, as sure as the wind, twitched and lunged out of his chair.

"You prick, why do you always have to say that stuff with a-"

Sakura shot them both a stern look, and they separated. Naruto moved on quickly to prod at Sakura with a cheeky grin.

"Hey, hey! Sakura-chan, what's your training been about?"

Sakura closed her eyes and flicked her hair over her shoulder. "I cannot divulge that information."

"Wait, _what?_ Sakura-chaaaan!"

She opened her eyes and winked, giggling.

"Well, you never know, Naruto," she said, giving him a sidelong look. "I could be going up against you, and I wouldn't want you know exactly what I can do, right?"

"You're planning to beat me _up?!_ Sakura-chan, you're so _mean!_ "

Satsuki sighed. "We're ninja, you idiot."

"But I always thought, since Sakura-chan loves me-!"

"Oh, shut up, Naruto! This is about getting promoted, remember?!"

"But love is meant to withstand _all_ trials!"

"Yo! Sorry I'm late-"

"Shut _up!_ " the three roared.

Kakashi pulled out his chair and sat down before he opened his book to a bookmarked page. Team 7 stilled. Sakura's eyebrow twitched.

"Sensei," she said.

"Yes, my inquisitive student?"

She breathed in deeply through her nose.

"You _do_ know that we've already ordered, right?"

"Of course."

"And we're still going to make you pay your part of the bill."

Kakashi hummed.

"In that case," he said, motioning over a waitress, "I'll just make a small order then. Miss, can I have your finest pinot noir?"

The waitress nodded, and then came back with a bottle that she opened with caution and poured even with even more; the three of them watched carefully as Kakashi lifted the glass. Naruto's eyes narrowed.

' _Almost at his lips-!'_

He smelled the wine.

"Ah," he said. "There is nothing like the scent of fine wine. Wouldn't you say?"

Naruto twitched, fuming.

"Are you actually going to _drink_ it, Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi shrugged, removing his book from his pocket and opening it once again.

"When I feel like it."

After a moment of prolonged tension, Sakura breathed out and turned to Naruto.

"You look thinner."

Naruto laughed.

"Aren't you going to say about how cool I am, Sakura-chan?" he said, a laugh in his tone that bent into a plea. "And that I look so much stronger and more badass?"

Sakura's half-laugh half-sigh was half-hearted, and she looked away. "Sure. You just… I just, well- you can't run on no energy, you know, Naruto. So don't go trying it, okay?"

"I know, I know, Sakura-chan! I've been eating fine. I've just been working hard too. You'll see!"

Their food came - ' _Kakashi-sensei's glass is half full - when the hell did he-?!'_ \- and they ate in comfortable silence. Naruto slurped, however.

Although the boy finished first, Satsuki supposed it served as testament to just how skewed his eating habits must have been, because he didn't order a second bowl, let alone the usual seven.

He pushed aside his bowl and put his jaw on his fist.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto mumbled, sounding a bit teary, "are you really not going to tell us about your training?"

Sakura laughed. "Naruto, there's no need to be so sad. I just want it to be a surprise, okay?"

Naruto sniffed. Satsuki pushed him on the shoulder.

"Shut up, idiot. Tell us about your training, then."

"Well, there's," Naruto said. He stopped. "Well- I, okay, so - let me think. It's like. Okay. Uh… well, there's normal training. Which is just learning better taijutsu I guess, and how to be faster, and just getting stronger in general. But now I'm doing all this… whooshy shit."

There was a silence. Sakura leaned forward, incredulous.

" _Whooshy shit?_ "

"Uh…" Naruto took a moment to think. "-yeah. Whooshy shit."

Satsuki put her head in her hands.

"Fascinating," said Kakashi. "Truly."

"I don't know what the technique is _called_ yet, but I've just started learning that. And it is going to be _so_ cool, just you wait."

"Oh _, I_ know it," Satsuki said. "Whooshy style: Whooshy Shit no Jutsu."

"Did you just make a _joke?_ "

The night ended on a mixed note.

On one hand, everything went relatively well. However, it turned out that Kakashi's bottle of wine, which he had somehow managed to finish alone - which meant that the quiet giggles at his fine literature got far, _far_ louder (' _Or was he doing that just to embarrass us?_ ') - had cost more than the entirety of their meals put together.

Somehow, the affair still ended up with Naruto and Satsuki punching each other on the floor. They were promptly thrown out, and probably black-listed.

* * *

Satsuki glared at the de-stitched material once again.

She had seen Sakura demonstrate this stitch _so many times._

But then she would just screw it up and then it would knot on the back or it would twist and - it just wouldn't _work._ Satsuki knew she could just activate her Sharingan, copy the stitch with that same motion of her hands, as she had watched Sakura do with a sly flare of her eyes.

She lifted the needle as Sakura had done, looping through the material-

Satsuki shook with anger, and cut away the beginnings of the copy-cat stitch.

She wouldn't. Not this time.

With resolve, Satsuki started again.

* * *

The fight between Satsuki and Naruto began in silence as always, but with a tangible tension.

Naruto lunged forwards. There had never been any holding back before, but now she could feel an intent. In his every swing and hit, the earth seemed to rattle with his effort.

She frowned.

And when Satsuki landed a blow, hard, on Naruto's neck with the flat side of her fan, Naruto burst into red.

He didn't bleed, nor did he burn, but he lunged for her, hands like claws that tore out and forward and through the flesh of her forearm and stopped short of her throat.

It faded there.

The moment was still, with her, arm sopping wet with blood that drained into the soil, and Naruto, clasping her by the wound with fingers ready to crush her throat.

Jerking away from her, he stepped back once, twice, and ran.

Satsuki bandaged herself alone.

* * *

When Satsuki returned home, Sakura didn't say anything at all for a while.

She went about her daily routine.

"I think I should go home today."

Satsuki didn't know how she felt about that.

"I see."

"I told my parents where I was going, but," Sakura said, her voice sounding strained, "They're probably so worried. And… I don't know."

Satsuki stirred the tea. She didn't feel like tea today. She didn't feel like anything today. "You miss them?"

Sakura was quiet.

"Maybe. It's hard to tell."

The girl turned over on the bed.

"But that's just… I mean, I'm- not- I…"

Satsuki heard a sigh.

"I dunno how I'm going to face them," Sakura admitted, bringing her forearm up to cover her eyes.

Satsuki felt her own forearm stinging beneath the bandages. She tied up her hair, and then made a decision.

"Do you want me to come with you?" she said.

Sakura turned to her, eyes wide, and then she smiled broadly.

"If that's alright," Sakura said, beaming.

' _Not really,'_ Satsuki thought. ' _But how many other people has she suckered in with that smile?'_

* * *

Sakura's parents were strange. Her mother in particular was kind and overbearing.

' _Is that what family is?'_ Satsuki thought. ' _I can't remember.'_

When they opened the door to Sakura, there were a lot of tears and mumbled things that made Satsuki step back and look away.

Sakura pulled back from her father and turned to bow to Satsuki.

"Thank you for everything, Satsuki-san."

Satsuki shook her head.

"No," she said. "Thank you _,_ Sakura."

The young girl stopped, looking up at Satsuki.

"It was…" Satsuki said. "I'm… glad to have had you. You were no trouble."

Sakura blinked, and then smiled, red-faced.

Sakura's mother stepped out the door, and took Satsuki by the hand.

"Satsuki-san?" she asked.

"Yes," she said. "Nice to meet you, Haruno-san."

The woman smiled in turn.

"Just call me Mebuki. Thank you for taking care of Sakura," she said carefully. "I… I am not sure how I feel about it now, but maybe it was best Sakura left the house."

"Sakura taught me a lot," Satsuki said. "There's nothing to thank me for."

Sakura giggled, and Mebuki raised an eyebrow.

"Is that so?"

"Satsuki-san!"

She quickly caught the key hurtling towards her, and looked at it. Satsuki frowned, and tossed it back. Sakura protested.

"Oi, Satsuki-"

"Keep it," Satsuki said. "It'll save you bothering me by knocking."

The young girl pocketed it with a sulking look, and Sakura's father, laughing, lead her into the house.

Mebuki, her eyes following her daughter as she left, then turned and took Satsuki by her hands, leaning down.

"I have faith in Sakura as a shinobi," she said, and then she hesitated. "Truly. But I want to ask you one last thing, Satsuki-san."

The woman ducked her head and closed her eyes.

"Take care of our Sakura," she said. "Please keep her safe."

Satsuki looked at Mebuki for a moment., and paused for a single moment until she gave her a resolute nod.

"I promise."

* * *

The training of Team 7, from there on, continued without significant incident.

Naruto did not appear to Satsuki for the rest of the month. Each night the spot was empty; he trained with Jiraiya, and when he was not training with Jiraiya, he exercised until his hands and feet bled.

On the final eve, Naruto channeled chakra into his palm, and focused.

He was frightened.

There was a humming. An unusual, unforeseen bending in his chakra-

"Oi, kid. When are you going to leave so I can go home and get some sleep?"

"Whenever you stop going after women 30 years younger than you."

"Hmph. I'll have you know I appreciate all women. Come on, kid."

"I'll turn into a girl if you help me just this once."

"...fine."

* * *

Satsuki reached the final handhold of victory, her palms cutting against the craggy rock of the cliffside.

"Do you think you're ready then?" Kakashi asked.

Satsuki smirked. "As I'll ever be."

Her teacher hummed for a moment. "Are you sure about that?"

Satsuki frowned.

"Wha-?"

Kakashi kicked Satsuki off of the cliff. Regularly raising your heart rate, Kakashi remembered, was meant to be very good for one's health, after all.

* * *

Anko had put Sakura through a decent amount of training through genjutsu - which was almost completely necessary, considering that the techniques in question were undoubtedly lethal on an actual human, but necessary to practice until absolute precision - but today was the day she would test it on Anko herself.

Said woman was now lifeless, and Sakura was beginning to panic.

"Anko-sensei? Anko-sensei, this really isn't funny- fuck, she is _so_ dead. How do you hide a body in a village full of fucking n-"

Anko jumped out, grinning -

"Tada!"

\- and knocked Sakura to the ground.

There was a silence.

Punching Sakura in the head had seemed funny at the time, but Anko also had a tendency to forget that people could die from that kind of thing, because no one really seemed to.

She frowned, stepping closer, and nudged Sakura with her foot.

"Oh." She scratched her head. "Man. Well, I… shit."


	19. Tails

At Sakura's side, Satsuki was silent.

Sakura knew her as anger, or bite, but now, Satsuki was unmoving, hunched over the rail and staring across the dust of the battlefield.

Amongst the combatants, prepared and quiet in the waiting area, there was a boy with red hair and dark circles around his eyes. Sakura bit her lip, and tucked her hair behind her ear. She felt for a needle, and was relieved at its point.

The stadium bubbled with energy; they were in the shade, but it was a scorching day.

There was a gap between Sakura and Satsuki where Naruto was not, and spying her gaze, the girl from Suna snickered. Sakura couldn't hold back.

"What?"

Temari scoffed, and stretched her arms above her head, smiling. "Oh, nothing." She checked her nails. "Your friend isn't here yet. Sure he's coming?"

Sakura glowered. Temari carried on.

"But you know, anyone would be scared of facing Gaara," Temari said, leaning back and looking as though she was pushing down a laugh. "I wouldn't blame him for running away."

"Naruto hasn't run away."

The waiting area fell into silence Satsuki's cold and certain tone. She stood upright, putting her hands in her pockets and turning to Temari with those dark eyes.

"And how do you know that?" Temari said with a sneer.

She stood slightly taller than Satsuki, but Sakura could swear that she shriveled under that gaze all the same.

"I'm certain," said Satsuki. "Naruto will be here."

Temari looked a moment longer, scoffed, but said nothing else. She stepped back and turned to the stadium, looking at the slowly filling stands. Sakura sighed.

 _'But that's what you get for talking shit about Naruto in front of Satsuki-san,'_ Sakura thought. _'I learned that the hard way...'_

The stadium began to simmer into a quiet buzz, and the proctor unfolded the examination sheet. Gaara turned from the group, and began to walk, slowly, down the steps behind them. Sakura turned to watch him descend into the dark stairwell, but Satsuki didn't move.

"Satsuki-san, there's no need to worry, as you said." Sakura gave her a small smile. "Naruto is-"

"I know, Sakura." Satsuki pulled one of her fans clipped to her belt, and splayed it wide, running her fingers over the metal-spined spokes.

 _'Then why is she worrying?'_ Sakura thought. _'I've never seen her like this before...'_

As Satsuki ran her fingers over the material of her fan, Sakura eyed the white scar that peered from beneath her arm protectors. It was long, and came to a point. She frowned, and made a move to speak, when the voice of the proctor rumbled through the stadium. The audience fell silent.

"Uzumaki Naruto," the man said, looking down to the board and then up again. "And Sabaku no Gaara."

Satsuki's fan snapped shut.

Gaara's voice, though Sakura could not see him, came from beneath her.

"Here," he said. His footsteps were slow and evenly spaced.

The proctor looked around again.

"Has anyone seen Uzumaki Naruto?" he said again.

Sakura put her head in her hands. "Ugh... why does Naruto manage to screw up _everything?_ He'll be so upset if he misses this match, too..."

Satsuki, her fingers poised on the hard lacquer of her fan, was still.

At her side, Temari's lips curled unkindly and she opened her mouth-

"Yo!"

Sakura groaned, and Satsuki flinched.

In a great gust of light and leaves, Naruto, with one palm outstretched and his open jacket flailing in a fierce wind, appeared in the centre of the arena with a wide and manic grin.

Laughing, he winked and put up a thumbs up.

"Sorry I'm late!"

Pulling up a breath, Sakura pushed forward into a fury, grabbing the rail with both hands. "You _idiot!_ You almost missed your match, do you know that?!"

"Sorry, sorry, Sakura-chan! Ero-sennin was teaching me how to do that cool entrance thing! But it's totally cool, right?"

She heard some kind of wildly excited noise from the stands, and looked to see some old man with white hair looking offended and proud all at once.

And then Naruto settled, his excitement fading into something else, and he put his hands in his pockets. Gaara folded his arms and trained his eyes upon Naruto.

Sakura leant back from the rail, anger falling from her mouth.

The proctor raised an eyebrow, and stepped back a few paces.

Satsuki, at her side, clipped her fan to her belt, her hands forming a bridge beneath her jaw.

The stadium was commanded to silence by the tangible stare shared between the two. Sakura watched with dread weighing her every blink.

' _Totally cool… isn't the right word for any of this.'_

"Begin."

* * *

Naruto blurred forwards.

Gaara saw him, and remained steadfast. Naruto drew back, eyes locked on the sand.

Gritting his teeth and digging his heels into the dirt, he threw himself to the right and hit the ground running, pouring every ounce of momentum into his legs to throw himself out of Gaara's line of sight.

Then he turned and pulled himself to that wall of sand that moved like ink in water, and slung a fist at it. It slammed to the point of impact and shuddered with the momentum of Naruto's punch, but Gaara, behind it, was still.

With a scream of muscle and air, Naruto dug his knuckles in further, lowered his centre of mass, and slammed the hard edge of his leg into the wall.

It caught the hit but this time, he came closer to Gaara. Satisfaction webbed itself in the veins of his chest.

"Yes," he whispered, a soft sound that almost masked the shifting of forming sand. A blade poised to shoot from the wall.

Naruto pressed his free hand to the floor and threw his mass over it, spinning just barely away from the edge that threatened his flesh. He set his feet in the ground, and then shot to the right.

The defense moved like a reflection of Naruto at first, and he focused on his legs moving in front of each other.

It wasn't fast enough, and Naruto gritted his teeth.

' _Faster,'_ he thought, powering chakra to his legs. _'I've got to go faster.'_

Power poured from every step, so much so that a dust was beginning to cover the two of them, and Naruto looked to the ultimate defense.

It was lagging. With a smirk, Naruto breathed deeply and brought his fingers together.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

The sound was lost in the air, but a clone appeared at his side, and then another, and then another. There was a swarm of clones, running in unison around Gaara. The dust that had formed a mist now formed a cloudy fog, and resounded with the buzz of a hundred footsteps.

Naruto narrowed his gaze, and they converged.

Gaara's ultimate defense countered every strike, pulling from one spot to the other and shuddering from the impact, sand crumbling down from the force. Gaara, staring at the blurs of orange assailing his defense, did not move.

One by one, they withdrew, but then one by one they returned; again, and again, and again. More clones appeared.

Gaara had complete faith in his ultimate defense, but struggled to see through the blur of clones.

Like the parting of an ocean, in one smooth motion, Naruto launched forward, pressing something large, loud, and blue into the sand.

The sand concealed him from sight, catching the attack effortlessly. Gaara heard the whir of air and chakra, the sinking of sand beneath the pressure, but didn't speak.

Then there was a crack.

The sand cracked again, and then again. The soft cushion turned into a bed of stone, and in a cacophony of sand, chakra, and fury-

" _Rasengan!"_

-the defense broke.

Naruto saw Gaara's chest split, crack and spurt blood. It filtered through the Rasengan and sprayed onto both of their faces, droplets hanging in Naruto's eyelashes and the scent of it assailing his nostrils.

The blue in his hand faded, and looking at Gaara, half-dead and wheezing, Naruto saw the mania in his eyes for a split second before the sand lurched and grabbed Naruto tightly by the wrist.

' _Rough,_ ' Naruto thought. _'Motherly.'_

Gaara's sand pulled back and then launched him with a twang. Seeing the wall instantaneously, he hit it. Something broke.

His collision was that of stone and bone, and he slid down from the destruction to the ground, the concussive force doubling his vision. Blinking through the white, Naruto cursed.

The crowd were mumbling, their excitement distant in his daze.

Through his stupor, Naruto looked up and rolled out of the way. The sand fist connected with the wall and dissolved; Naruto stumbled back, his senses reeling. The movement sent a strike of pain from the peak of his back to his right foot. Naruto hissed.

Naruto collapsed to his knees. Before him was a wavering bed of sand, and Gaara stood atop it, looking down on him with an indistinguishable look through his gasps for air.

"It was nice while it lasted," Gaara said, chuckling and clutching the wound on his chest. It was bubbling with sand. "But that doesn't matter."

Gaara's sand leaked from the platform beneath him and slithered along the floor, coiling around his neck, the sibilant movement of sand a lullaby in his ear.

"It's still my win."

The python twisted. Gaara snapped Naruto's neck, and the world fell away into blood.

* * *

The stadium bristled with the presence of death.

Sakura and Satsuki were motionless, silent, Sakura with tears budding in the corners of her eyes and Satsuki caught in a dead scream. The proctor's mouth was open.

But then something moved.

Sakura stepped back, unsteadied, hands clasped to her mouth and wide-eyed.

"Satsuki-san," she whispered, breath coming in gasps, "What- What's that?"

Satsuki stepped back from the rail. The scar on her arm tingled, and then stung.

Naruto's body had slumped over into a crouch, with great white hooks piercing through his flesh, curling around him and cradling his torso. Sharp, right-angled bones emerged from his sides, white strung together by muscle and flesh.

From the small of his back came a long, white bone tail, straight as a plank, before it cracked once, twice, three, four _many_ times and strung itself together with tendons that plaited through the bone. Languid, it pulled itself from the ground, and curled up into itself, above Naruto's head.

And his flesh was as black as tar.

Satsuki's stomach twisted.

"It looks like a scorpion," she whispered, words barely making it past her lips.

Gaara fell to his knees. Shaking, he covered his ears with his hands, and began muttering to himself.

Temari and Kankurou stiffened and looked to each other. Temari sighed, and then laughed. It was a noise without any real mirth, but Sakura and Satsuki's gazes snapped to her.

"Looks like you Konoha ninja have your own little monster as well."

The scorpion, unsettled, moved forward with the mechanical tapping of legs in the dirt, and steam spilled from its mouth like froth. It leaned forward, towards Gaara, curling into himself, and stepped back.

There was a moment of silence.

Satsuki's eyes widened, and then the arena, once stilled with the quiet presence of a predator, rattled with laughter, and the roar of invasion.

"Mother is happy to see you, _Kyuubi!"_

Gaara exploded in a mass of chakra, enemy ninja leapt from the shadows of the stands, Temari and Kankurou converged upon Satsuki, and in the presence of mass hysteria, war and demons, it was not a stretch to say that all hell broke loose.

* * *

"Sakura?"

The world shook, blurred, and then focused. Ino was above her, hands on shoulders, face fading into relief.

"Good," she said. "Sakura, did you see where Satsuki-"

A jolt of fear possessed Sakura by her heart, and she jerked to her feet, stumbling over the unconscious persons behind her and scanning their faces.

"Satsuki-san," she whispered, and then her voice raised. "It was- It was those ninja from Suna-"

"Suna?" Ino repeated, and Sakura's eyes widened. She clutched her chest, scrambling to her feet in a panic.

"They've taken her," she said. "Ino, they've taken Satsuki-san!"

Ino slapped her hand over Satsuki's mouth and pushed her by her shoulders to the ground, looking out onto the stadium. Sakura could hear the clang of metal above her.

"Listen," Ino said. "Konoha's being invaded. Most people fell into the genjutsu, but for those that didn't, there are ninja out there that want us dead. Get that, forehead?"

Sakura shrunk back, shaking.

"What I'm trying to tell you is we've got to be careful," Ino whispered. She looked through the rails onto the battlefield.

"I have a feeling Gaara was part of the plan to invade Konoha," she said. "And – I don't know what the hell is wrong with Naruto, but Gaara's interested in him the most. If I get Naruto out of the village, Gaara will get out of here too."

Sakura looked at up at her. She was trembling.

"But what about Satsuki?" she whispered. "If we leave her, then- who knows what they're going to do to her?"

"You need to get to Naruto when I lead him out the village," Ino said. "And make sure Gaara goes down."

"I don't have a chance against him!" Sakura said, rising in a panic. "He'll kill us both-!"

Ino looked at her with a grim smile.

"I know you're worried," she said. "About yourself and Satsuki-san... but the whole village is at stake. I'm going to use my possession technique." She brushed herself off, preparing to stand.

"Whatever Naruto's become isn't human," Sakura said, focusing blankly on the bony creature that circled the dusty ground.

Ino gritted her teeth. "Then I'll find the human in him and drag it out," she said. "You've _got_ to go after them once I get them out of the village, Sakura."

Sakura stopped, looking at Ino. "Why are you being like this all of a sudden, Ino? When did you start to..."

Ino looked at her for a prolonged moment, but then shook her head.

"So many questions. Just use that big brain of yours and do what I say," she said. "I'm leaving it to you, forehead."

"Ino, I-!"

Ino collapsed.

* * *

Ino had received plenty of training on the average human labyrinth.

Naruto, as it turned out, was not the average human.

She was in an apartment. It was overrun with plants. It looked lived in, and yet overtaken by nature. The floor sparkled, the air stank of detergent, the bed was unmade. The tap was running.

It was small, somewhat old, but homey and uncanny in its cleanliness.

As far as Ino could tell, the puzzle element of every human mind as it represented itself to intruders – was missing.

She swallowed her fear, and made her way to the window. It was staring out onto an empty blue sky. Opening the window, Ino leaned out.

There was nothing but sky that stretched from top to bottom. But she could see windows below her. This was a tower.

_'Alright. I'll find some stairs, then.'_

Ino went into the kitchen, the bedroom, and the bathroom. There were no stairs.

There was a long corridor, that seemed to lead to the front door. She could even see the door as she walked down it, but when she reached it, it was somehow just smooth wall.

 _'Then this is the puzzle,'_ she thought. _'Finding my way down.'_

The apartment smelled strongly of plants, of life, and was generally pleasant, if strange.

Drawers and the like were empty, however. By the bed, Ino saw a photo frame.

It seemed to be a picture of Team 7; but only Sakura was on the photograph.

A coldness went through her then, but she shook it off easily, and went to look around.

When Ino turned off the light, she found a door, like the door she had seen at the end of the hallway, but lying vertically on the floor.

Ino frowned, and opened it. She could only see floor, similar, planked floor: she went down.

It was the same apartment.

This time, the apartment was messier; but the bed was made. There were some things on the floor, general disorder, the drawers were full. Outside, there was a bright sunset that poured over the room and blinded her.

 _'What a strange guy,'_ Ino thought.

The apartment smelled strongly of tea, but Ino couldn't even find a kettle.

This apartment was also warmer than the one above.

But in the drawers were nothing of note; they were absolutely brimming with things, but not actually anything at all. Nothing personal.

There was no hint as to what she should do; the only thing she could note was that the team photo, this time, only had Satsuki, who was pulling the hair of some unseen silhouette.

The sunset continued to cast long shadows from Naruto's table onto his floor. Sighing, Ino closed the curtains.

There was a door again, this time, behind the curtains where the window had been.

Unsettled, Ino parted the curtains again and stepped through.

It was an apartment once more, but this time Ino was consumed with an absolute sense of dread the moment she stepped through the door.

The apartment stank. The stench was utterly unbearable, and she found herself pushing down vomit, but also tears.

She was in the hall. Some kind of animal carcass was nailed to the door.

 _'What is this kid hiding inside of him?'_ Ino thought, stepping backwards and stumbling away.

Ino became very suddenly aware of her bare feet. She was sure she'd had shoes on in the second floor.

The kitchen door was already open, and it smelled of blood. But as Ino inspected, there was none; the window revealed an unbearably bright daylight, which poured out but did not make it into the hall. The windows that had been in the hall previously were gone.

The drawers were empty. One was filled with water.

She decided to check the bathroom next.

The windows were gone here, too; she peered through the darkness, and tentatively made her way in, waiting for her eyes to adjust.

There was an arm in the sink, a fox head in the toilet.

Ino gasped, and clutched her chest with one hand and clamped onto her nose with the other. She saw some sort of figure in the shower, and reached for the door.

Something on the doorknob was soft.

Ino screamed, yanking the door open and slamming it behind her, wiping her hands fervently on her top.

She felt sick. Physically sick; her stomach was turning, her heart was throbbing. There was an alien feeling that wasn't hers permeating the entire floor.

"Got to get out," she muttered, wiping away tears and shaking her head. She walked across the hall, feeling a tremble in her every step.

She stood in front of the bedroom door for a long time, and held her hand on the lock. That soft thing she could not see through the darkness tickled her fingers again. Her heart was thrumming.

She could hear a banging, somewhere, but then complete silence.

Ino took the doorknob and clasped it, sweaty hands hindering the twist of her wrist. With some jiggling of the lock, the door opened.

The bedroom was quiet, and there didn't seem to be much wrong. In here, the windows were gone, just like the bathroom and the hall. She walked forward, but was hit by a sharp pain.

She gasped and lifted her foot up: glass. She'd stood on glass, and now her foot was bleeding. The shard fell out of her skin and shattered.

Squinting through the darkness, Ino leaned down, and felt for the small outline she could see.

It was the picture of Team 7, she realised. Or at least the frame of it; the picture was gone.

The smell of blood hit her then. It was too overwhelming to be her foot, she realised. And then there was the smell of decay.

Standing up, limping, Ino looked away from the direction of the smell and checked the drawers. Empty.

The confrontation became inevitable. She walked, feeling her toes moving with the slickness between them, to the bed. The smell was so overpowering it stuck to her tongue. Through the darkness, she managed to see someone in the bed.

Ino felt fear welling in her gut.

 _'The light,'_ she thought. _'I need to see who it is.'_ Stumbling over, glass scraping her foot, she scrabbled at the light switch before it finally buzzed into brightness.

The windows were back, as though they were never gone. As she walked forward a few paces, she clasped her hands to her mouth.

It was Mizuki, in the bed, their teacher from back in the academy. The bed was soaked with his blood. She reached to pull back the covers, but retracted her hands the moment she felt the wetness of the material.

"It's my fault," she said, tears collecting in her eyes, and then she jerked back from the bed. The emotion slipped away from her. She ran from the room, feeling pain shoot up her leg. The door still wasn't there.

' _The bathroom,'_ she thought. _'I'll just check the bathroom.'_

Stepping backwards, Ino walked out and into the bathroom. She looked for the light switch.

When she got it on, she wished she hadn't.

The arm had long nails, and pale skin.

What she had thought was a figure in the shower was simply blood on the walls, about the height and width of a person. The drain was clogged with the stuff; peering closer, Ino realised it must be hair, but it was dyed red. She couldn't tell whose it might have been.

She turned around.

The doorknob was wrapped with Hinata's hair, and Ino took a moment before she realised it was her who was screaming.

She swung the door open and looked down the hall. The door was there; the animal carcass was on the floor.

Stepping over it with her eyes blurred by tears, she yanked the door open once again and ran.

Ino stopped.

The fourth apartment was bare, stripped of all furniture.

The windows were here again; it was night, the dark night sky, moonless and starless, stretched from the top to the bottom of everything Ino could see. The floors were bare, she couldn't smell anything out of the ordinary, and there weren't even any lights to turn on, this time.

The closer she looked at the walls, the more she realised they were covered in newspaper.

But not only that, if Ino stepped back, there were images beneath it.

Satsuki, Mizuki, Sakura, Hinata and Kakashi.

Her body shivered in the cold, and Ino felt her breath quickening.

' _They're all looking at me.'_

She tried to blink back tears, falling to the ground and trying to cover herself. She buried her face in between her knees.

' _Stop looking at me.'_

Ino began to cry.

She was frightened. No mind had ever been like this. She had never been trained for anything like this at all.

' _Is this really you, Naruto? These overwhelming feelings of loneliness...'_

Ino felt herself gasping for air, trying to find herself in the great long silence.

Unnerved, Ino moved to leave the bedroom, but cut herself on the doorknob.

Looking down, she realised the doorknob was gone, and a knife was in its place.

Wincing and wiping the blood on her clothing, Ino reached out again and turned the blade by its flat edges.

There wasn't a door, no matter how far back she stood in the hall.

She went to the kitchen, and turned this handle carefully as well. Empty.

In the bathroom, however, when she opened the door, this one was not so empty.

Where the toilet had been, there was now a gaping hole in the floor, the edges of it smeared with dried blood. Ino stood at its edge tentatively.

The windows were sealed tight, she realised, even going so far as to try the ones in the other rooms. They would not open. When she barraged the glass, not only did it not break, it felt far more like stone.

No matter what she tried, no door appeared.

Ino walked back into the bathroom. The hole was still there, gaping. Kneeling at its side, there was no noise. Nothing. It was complete and utter blackness below.

"Hello?" she said quietly. There was an echo.

' _It sounds so deep,'_ Ino thought. _'If I jump down there… then...'_

Staring down into that darkness, Ino felt weighted with sudden emotion, so strong that her elbows shook at the sides of the abyss.

_'I have to do it.'_

_'I have no choice.'_

_'There's no way I can carry on like this.'_

_'If I don't...'_

Ino fell down.

* * *

The wind in Sakura's ears was deafening.

Although Ino appeared to have gained some control over Naruto, it was not quite there yet.

After all, Sakura did not have to follow Naruto, but simply the destruction he left in his wake. Gaara was close behind, the both of them wreaking havoc and leaving behind a trail of broken trees and singed plants.

She choked back a lump in her throat.

' _Ino… is she going to be alright? And Satsuki-san… oh god, how the hell is she going to make it out alive? Is this really the right thing to do?'_

She could hear a carnal scream up ahead.

' _Am I trading Satsuki-san's life for the safety of the village? And if I did, would that be the right thing to do?'_

She coughed, and blinked back tears. "No," she said, clenching her fists. "That doesn't matter, because Satsuki-san's not going to die."

Sakura drew closer, and saw now that Naruto had drawn to a stop, and was circling Gaara with his grotesque walk.

Gaara was becoming more and more unrecognisable by the minute. Half his body was being festered on by a lumpy monstrosity of sand; he was heaving for breath in the middle of the makeshift clearing.

Sakura imagined that Ino was coming closer and closer to having a grip on Naruto's psyche, or however the technique functioned. Naruto was no longer attacking, and had drawn to a stop at a reasonable distance from the village.

She crossed her fingers, and as though her prayers were answered, Naruto's transformation began to fade.

The extra limbs didn't meld back into him, but simply snapped off and crumbled to the floor. Sakura felt sick at the thought.

Gaara, sneering, saw the body fading from him, and before Sakura could reach out to him, cradled him in a hammock of sand that siphoned into a chrysalis.

Gaara laughed, saliva spilling from his half-monster mouth.

"I've already won the battle against this one," he said, chuckling. "It doesn't matter if he dies, right?"

He was watching her carefully, and she stepped forward, never breaking her gaze.

The sand lifted Naruto, who began to claw and cough at the grip, and plastered him to a tree. Gaara smirked.

"If you want to see that boy alive," he said, "Kill me."

Sakura gritted her teeth and slipped senbon beneath her fingers. "You don't have to tell me twice!" She dived off to her right and sprinted to the left.

' _Weak spot,'_ Sakura thought. _'But this is no regular human body… most of it is reinforced with sand...'_

Running along the branch, Sakura dodged the swing of Gaara's large fist of sand, and ducked below it, firing herself like a bullet towards the human side of his body and slamming a senbon into the back of his knee.

Hearing his screech of pain, Sakura grinned, but then leant back to jump off of her hands away from the incoming blow. It slammed into the branch below, and shattered it to splinters.

"You bitch," he hissed. "If you think that's enough to beat me-!"

' _Dipped in a deep disorienting poison,'_ Sakura thought. _'Provided I can occupy him for twenty minutes, and provided this will even work on someone half demon - I might have a chance at winning.'_

From his defense, Gaara's sand melded into tiny bullets, and hurled towards Sakura.

She swung down to the branch below, and then doubled back to avoid another barrage.

' _The more senbon I get in there, the faster he'll go out,'_ she thought. _'But hitting the proper points is going to be impossible if I'm not close range...'_

Running forwards, Sakura launched a kunai towards Gaara's face - it was caught quickly, and absorbed into the sand and launched straight back her way. It went straight through her.

"Bunshin," he breathed, and then felt a great stripe of shocking pain as Sakura grabbed the senbon buried in the back of his knee, and _pulled_ it upwards into his thigh.

Gaara's leg trembled and collapsed. Sakura smirked.

' _That's a major muscle, straight in half,'_ she thought with glee.

Gaara's reinforced arm swung down like a war hammer, but met with the log that Sakura swapped with. She ran upwards on a branch below.

"You're a _rat_ ," he spat. "All you're doing is _running!_ "

Sakura wiped her mouth through her heavy breaths. "If fighting like a coward kills you and sets Naruto free," she said, slipping metal between her fingers, "then I'll fight like a coward until I die!"

Sticking chakra to the soles of her feet, Sakura sprinted up the bark and fired a barrage of senbon from her left and from her right, dodging their deflections with mere milliseconds to spare.

' _They're just being absorbed.'_

Then she looked at him again. The part of Gaara's body that was man was being infested by sand, that was encroaching on his flesh. Sakura cursed.

' _If that covers him completely, and he becomes whatever that is,'_ she thought, _'this poison might not work at all…!'_

She needed to shorten the time.

Leaping backwards, Sakura ran again, her lungs burning but desperately needing to re-evaluate. Gaara wasn't even moving. He was strong no matter where she was. Except for his human side, but it was so incredibly well-protected by the demon side that there was very little opportunity for proper damage.

Grabbing her senbon again, Sakura lunged for Achilles heel, but this time he was prepared. The defense was too fast, and she was thrown to the forest floor.

The impact sent her spine shuddering and grinding against itself like a rusty machine. Sakura bit her lip to keep from crying.

' _He's anticipating all of my moves. I have to do something from here.'_

Running up the tree trunk opposite him, Sakura climbed into the canopy, prepped 4 senbon in her hand, and ran back down, launching them from her fingers in a barrage.

They headed for the face, but only one of them hit their mark: the eye.

Gaara shrieked, the needle having embedded itself straight through the eyelid and the eyeball. He howled at the pain, breathing deeply. The needle was there like a javelin at bullseye, and Gaara, teeth bared, pinched the needle by its end. Sakura felt bile rising.

He began to pull, edges of the eyeball pulling out of the eyesocket steadily as though centred in a spider's web. It strained, on the verge of tumbling out of the socket, before the needle pulled out of the eye and it twanged back into equilibrium, spurting jelly and blood and forming tears a pinky mix of the two.

Sakura tried to quash a bout of vomit, digging her nails into her palm as she tried to keep up her pace. The sand was on her tail now, edging closer and closer to her heel as she sprinted across the bark.

When she reached the end, Sakura jumped, but it was too slow.

Gaara yowled with laughter. The sand latched to her leg from the knee down, and twisted.

Sakura shrieked.

The kneecap shattered, and the bone cracked. Gaara let her dangle for a single, painful moment in the air, before dropping her to the ground even more painfully. Sakura tried to move her leg, but was met only with an incapacitating pain that sent her eyes watering.

"It's no use…" Sakura looked to Naruto. "He's going to die…!"

Gaara's giggles moved into howls, reels and gasps that bent and looped. Sakura tried to pull her leg again, but cried out at the sheer pain of trying.

She dug her nails into the ground, and pulled herself forward, using her good leg to push her into a disordered stance. Shockwaves of pain rushed through her. Whimpering, Sakura limped to where Naruto was tightly plastered to the tree. She could see the grip growing tighter.

Falling to her knees, Sakura dug her nails into the sand, desperately trying to rip it from Naruto's body.

' _That,'_ she thought, looking at Naruto's face, stuck in a permanent, rigor melancholy, _'Or he's already dead.'_

Hearing Gaara's laughter, she couldn't keep from crying.


End file.
